Highlander
by Scope Eva
Summary: When a new plasma based power source is discovered the RDA dose everything it can to suppress it.  Their actions only drives plasma's eccentric creator to fight them on a new frount; Pandora.
1. Seting the Sceen

February 5th 2145

He stood there on the balcony of his top floor office apartment. He enjoyed looking over his home city of London, one of the benefits of the Commonwealth was they had pulled together there national treasuries to build atmospheric converters and water purifiers to keep the skies and oceans clean and blue. Will smiled as he looked over the magnificent silver, green and ceramic blue city he proudly called home. Further out there the busy markets arranged in circles around the government and administration park where he resided. Other smaller secular green parks scattered across London surrounded by stainless steel houses with flat roof top gardens. Feeling the brisk wind rush threw his long blond hair and short well trimmed beard from the high up balcony, it was nearing dusk.

The Commonwealth had become more united over the past decade and a half since his grate grand father had led a revolution back in the mid twenty first century. It had levelled most of London and put a large dent in Britain's population but you couldn't argue with the results. Privet banking was a thing of the past now replaced with the unified Commonwealth bank run by the government to help avoid economic melt downs. Companies had limitations to prevent corruption, monopolies, to enforce quality over profit and to prevent them growing too big like the RDA.

There was in fact a boycott of all RDA products in the Commonwealth and breach of the boycott resulted in the abandonment of the offending country, one of such counties had been Canada and now they shared a plummeting ecology like the rest of the world. Despite the boycott they still communicated with the RDA agreeing to a media black out of the commonwealth, after all they didn't want a sudden jump in population disturbing the fragile balance of air reclamation, population expansion and other factors. In return the RDA's customers didn't know that they could get cheaper better quality merchandise else where.

William Highlander the Third ran Scorpio Industries, a scientific research institute that manufactured weapons and power reactors to keep the money coming in. Highlander had become a big name in the Commonwealth, his uncle Martin ran a salvage company and his cousin Sophie had Cobalt Chemicals a bioengineering firm. Scorpio Industries had just released a new plasma based reactor that could potentially rival the RDA's unobtanium reactors and as a bonus variants of the plasma could also serve as a replacement to jet fuel. If only he could get the plasmatic resin formula right, it was a constant juggling act between physics and chemistry. He sighed knowing it would need at least three more weeks to figure it out but that would be without any interruptions.

Heading back inside he thought he had better catch up with the news. The room served as a combination of office, personal work shop and living area with an attached bed room. It was rather depressing that he had to sleep in an administrative building but with three major contracts in progress he just did not have the time to commute from his families estate. Slumping down on a sofa he look for the BBC international news channel.

"...and in recent news a dragon gun ship has been brought down in California, main suspects are the West Coast Resistance group who are believed to be held up in the red wood international park using its protected status to prevent air strikes and heavy weapons from being brought against them..." The presenter stated.

Will chuckled at the situation, the Commonwealth was secretly backing the West Coast Resistance and there bid for independence from the rather corrupt American government and the RDA.

"...the dragon gun ship in service of the RDA security force was shot down on patrol while protecting an important Resource Development Allocation research station. The RDA has denied reports that the lab was raided later that day."

Scorpio Industries was contracted by the British government to supply them with various weapons including rockets and anti aircraft mounts. He took an interest and got to know their leader personally. She was a nice girl, her speeches of justice, freedom and equality for all under their wings reminded him of the old vids of his grate grandfather William Highlander the first, he could respect that.

"Moving on the Avatar program has been yielding further positive results. The RDA justifies the multimillion dollar project because of the unannounced scientific discoveries made on Pandora by the Avatar team. In addition they serve as diplomats to the native population the Na'vi and are reported to have formed a strong bond the Na'vi. Michel Harof interviews a recently accepted candidate, Tomas Sully..."

"_Ha, bull shit." _ Will thought to himself.

To him the Avatar program was a bad joke. _"How were you supposed to improve Human/Na'vi relations with something that's not Human?"_

His logic was simple; The Avatar project was so expensive that they only took the most dedicated and devoted candidates. The only reason they had to work so hard at it was they wanted to get away from whichever cesspool they lived in. In short they wanted to run away instead of trying to make the world a better place, they should have sent humans to negotiate with the Na'vi instead.

However while he frowned upon the individual it was no skin off his nose that the RDA blundering into such a fundamental mistake, they already had a tight grip hold on the UN and most Earth governments, he didn't want the Na'vi to suffer that same fate.

"_In fact if what my friend at the intelligence agency said was true those relations are about to plummet."_ Something about a new second in command, a commander called Falco and their current commander Colonel Quaritch. Will looked up their records and what he found was rather interesting. Falco; experienced commander and patriot recently retired from the military, not too smart though judging by his brutal, simplistic tactics. Quaritch on the other hand was a sleigh, capable bastard. Three tours in Nigeria and three years on Pandora was impressive but he relied to heavily on cytological warfare. Summed up; both proud patriots, prone to using overly violent solutions and potential xenophobes.

"...in other news Saudi Arabia has recently made accusations against Scorpio Industries of producing biological weapons in the United Nations senate earlier today."

"What?" Will exclaimed as his attention was wiped back to the TV.

"Saudi Arabia has presented evidence that their new plasma based technology also serve as biological weapons. A formal Inquiry has been authorised."

"_Where on earth did this come from? Plasma a biological weapon? Sure it released harmful amounts of toxic gasses if mix irresponsibly with other chemicals but that alone wouldn't..."_ and then it sprang on him.

"Of course! If containment was breached it would be a rather violent fireworks display, the combination of the two would render it a biological weapon by definition even if it were highly infective." Will muttered to himself.

He was pacing now. This situation just provided him with another problem, plasma tech was just prototype technology it testing wasn't complete let alone on the shop shelves for any one to get their hands on.

"_I've got a security leak,"_ he thought. And with that he turned off the TV his face turning from shocked astonishment to deadly serious, his cool blue eyes focusing and freezing over. He went to the telephone and got an internal line to his secretary.

"Get my department executives and my lawyer on the horn, I want them in meating room seven in one hour. If they cant make it tell them to get a high security conference line."

"All of them sir?" the secretary inquired.

"Yes, all of them." His voice was using an icy tone he had not found himself using in years.

"Yes sir, I'll get on it right away."

"Oh and one more thing, for the last time stop calling me sir." with that he hung up and began preparations for the meting.


	2. Company Mad House

February 5th 2145

Will had managed to lighten up a little since the news hit but he was still nervous. He currently had three major contracts under his belt so this was the last thing he needed. He was waiting in the dark meeting room now, pacing in front of the table his dark camo jacket wiping around with each tern. He never dressed up like a monkey, his casual clothes were his business cloths whether designing a new spy sub or addressing the House of Commons.

"_How did Saudi Arabia of all country get technical information on plasma? The RDA or somebody else must have had a hand in it." _Will thought to himself.

The door started to open; good his first two men had arrived. Conner Fettel and James Torrent, they were in charge of weapons development and testing. They honestly loved there job but they were also a nuisance. Inseparable but always bickering couldn't go thirty seconds in conversation without insulting the other and they were always late.

"Wow! I, I almost can't believe it!" William was obviously mocking them. "ONLY five minutes late, that's a new record you know. "...and even better! You're both dressed up as monkeys." He exclaimed referring to the suits they were wearing.

"Hay! It's not our fault you like calling conferences in the middle of the night." Conner complied defensibly.

James was looking a lot less flustered then his partner, "Its only dusk Conner, a perfectly acceptable time for a conference as long as it is important of coerce." He replied calmly.

"yeah but with Will hear important is probably getting contracted to the near impossible task of building a Death Star." Conner retorted.

Will smiled and shook his head, "All right, all right calm down you two, I don't want something so trivial starting a shouting match. Not that this meeting was called over trivial matters."

Just then the wall sized screen at the far end of the room started up, a black man with dread locks and a bright coloured shirt appeared. Edward (or Eddy as he preferred to be called) was Scorpio Industry's representative for the Caribbean, the Falkland Islands and other members of the commonwealth in that area, he also oversaw the secret submersible maintenance and refitting station there.

The Commonwealth had many similar bases around the world that nobody else knew about. William almost hated to admit it but the Commonwealth was paranoid, they had spies in every major country (even a few on Pandora), tight border patrols, a relentless immigration system and complicated satellite jamming and scrabbling devices to stop others from looking at them. What was even worse for Will however was they had good reasons to be paranoid, if the rest of the world caught on that the Commonwealth was a step in the right direction of paradise the immigrants would start flocking in from around the world and it would destroy everything they had worked so hard to create. Then there was their technology, it was years ahead of everything else the world had so America, many other nations and even the UN might start a war over it.

"Mon, why are you calling at this time of day? I was in the middle of having lunch with a very pretty lady." He had a strangely harmonious English/Jamaican accent.

The comment caused James and Conner to start sniggering but Will just rolled his eyes. "Come on, this is meant to be serious guys. How often do I call a priority one meting?"

"Every time you blow something up." The sarcastic tone came from his head of finance Richard Baker. A greasy character if ever there was one. He simply took his seat without another word.

Next to arrive was the company's star lawyer David Miller. He defiantly enjoyed his job; embarrassing the trivial demands of others such as last week after the unveiling of plasma tech the RDA tried to claim reprimands for the drop in shears it had cased. However he did let certain things drop, like honest requests for compensation.

"So what have you got for me today? Have these two been disturbing the peace again," he gestured at Conner and James who had started bickering over a rail gun design, "or is it something more challenging?" straining his glasses as he sat down.

"He's blown something up mon." Eddy joked.

"For goodness sakes it was only two incidents and I wasn't even present at the one in Manchester." Will had quickly got board of the long running joke that he deliberately blew up his own labs for fun. Yes he liked fireworks and personally testing some of his weapons but he kept it strictly inside the firing range. "But I can guarantee a challenge for you David."

Over the next few minutes the rest of the department managers arrived and his African and Oceania representatives hooked up to the video conference line. _"Just one more now." _ Will thought, _"dam it where is Loki?"_ Just then the last quarter of the screen flickered to life displaying the words INCOMING TRANSMITION, it then went to static and then the words ADIO CONECTION ONLY flickered on to the screen.

"Sorry I'm late; you know how the military are about using the com array for personal calls. Had to jury-rig the equipment on Victory to get a connection, but the techies won't be pleased about the mess I left." His voice was stunningly similar to William's if it weren't for the subtle mechanical clicking amongst his words he easily would have passed for him. "So which city did you blow up this time? Cardiff? Liver Pool? How about Sunderland? Such a depressing name Sunderland." Will and Loki were close but they were like twin brothers, they would stick by each other till the end but they annoyed each other just as much.

Will slumped his head against the table and chuckled hysterically. "As I recall I left you in charge of the Manchester reactor when it blew." He accused raising his head from the table.

"Hay I was on down time when the reactor breached, don't blame me for the job of some lousy Techies."

Will just smiled and decided to lay the matter to rest. If anybody discovered what Loki was it would case an ethical debate where he and Loki would end up locked up for a few years, but the higher ups in the government and the military knew. Loki was currently on one of the Atlantic sea forts overseeing the construction of Victory, Britannia and soon Phoenix.

Will began, "So every bodies hear? Good, down to business. I've got some funny news and some not so funny news. Some of you might have already herd that Saudi Arabia has accused us, threw the UN, that Scorpio Industries is producing biological weapons."

The room went silent, then people started whispering amongst themselves, then a few chuckles and finally an all-out round of laughter. "Bio-weapons? Next you will be telling us Americas striving for world peace and the RDA has started donating to charity out of good will." One man exclaimed.

"Saudi Arabia accusing others of making biological weapons? They've attempted to make more bio-weapons then numbers I can count! And those are some damned high numbers." Richard said.

When everybody settled down, more or less, Will continued. "That's where the not so funny news comes in. They have substantial evidence to support their otherwise dodgy claim." William was using a serious tone, which made everyone else uncomfortable.

"But how can they have evidence if we don't make them?" James asked. "It's illegal and I know you wouldn't permit it, would you?"

"Normally I wouldn't but the item in question is not intended to be used as a bio-weapon, it is only a biological weapon by definition."

"Well what is the "item in question" anyway?" Conner asked irritably.

All eyes were on Will now, "Plasma reactors." The two simple words started a commotion that would have embarrassed even the House of Commons. "Just settle down and listen would you?" Every one of the people in front of him were trusted friends, but they could be thick sometimes.

Will continued, "Now, when plasma is introduced to Selenium Chloride it creates large quantities of noxious gases in lethal concentrations. Now we all know from the Manchester incident that reacting plasma does not like the outside world, the combination renders it a Biological weapon. Although not a very effective one it's enough to start an investigation." The explanation seemed to satisfy them.

"Excuse me…" David spoke up, "in a court of law that would be considered a chemical weapon not a biological weapon, technically speaking."

This seemed to annoy Richard, "What relevance does this have? Instead of one crippling allegation we have another, so what?"

Conner caught on immediately to what David was saying, "Because, Dick" Richard hated that nick-name, "it will bog them down long enough to move sensitive data and prototype equipment away from the facilities that are going to be investigated." The venomous response annoyed Will. The finance sector had a stereotypical reputation for being greedy and because of it they took a lot of flak, it made Richards job difficult.

James added to the comment, "He's right. There are a lot of things locked up in those labs we're not ready to reveal and I suspect that the investigators picked for the operation were on the RDA pay roll before the allegations were even made. If we behave snobbishly enough they should only suspect we're trying to be difficult."

"Well it's the best suggestion so fa…"

"Wait!" Ben interrupted, he was head of health and safety, "Did you say RDA? …coolant." He muttered the last word to himself. "The RDA is involved for sure, right?"

"Yes…" Will responded. Everyone was confused now by Ben's behaviour.

"The RDA is fond of a specific type of cheap coolant that contains significant amounts of Selenium Chloride, its illegal hear, doesn't meet safety regulations. One of their research stations blew recently and the area was contaminated but they never reviled what by." He was beginning to make sense now. "I make a note of investigating such incidents, what if it was stolen plasma?"

A fierce grin came to Will's face, his eyes once again aflame with the disaster turned opportunity. "You've earned yourself a healthy bonus Ben. Terence," head of logistics, "I want you moving our stuff now."

"Roger."

"Conner, James you help him, I don't want those labs suspiciously empty." Luckily for Will most of the parts and weapons for Victory and Britannia were being assembled on site. "Naomi," head of information management and secretly hacking, "clean out the data banks, I want no mentioning of Victory, Britannia and most certainly not Phoenix."

"On it." Con and James responded in unison.

"Gotcha." Naomi said

"David, I want you working on that court case, try to hold of the investigation but don't act desperately we want to swing this back at the RDA if we can."

"All ready on it." He said furiously typing on his lap top.

"Loki, I want you getting satellite images of that RDA lab and any other evidence you can get for David."

"Yessir!" he responded in mock seriousness.

"Bruce," the Oceania rep on the video link, "I want you to get in contact with the West Coast Resistance. We gave them some plasma AA guns to field test, the RDA probably stole the plasma off them." Scorpio Industries had weapon grade plasma pinned down, just not reactor grade plasma. "Tell them they're not in trouble if they did, it might have helped put another nail in the RDA's sizable coffin."

"Consider it done mate." He had the iconic Australian accent.

"Everyone else, do what you can to help. I'm going to inform the cabinet; being their main weapons supplier they're going to want answers. End of conference." _"After I get some sleep that is."_ He thought. And with that everyone got up and left, the video links cutting out.


	3. The House of Common Intrest

February 6th 2145

"_The House of Commons, my favourite place." _Will thought sarcastically. A tall blond woman with glasses finally came to collect him.

"If you wouldn't mind following me Mr Highlander, the cabinet will see you now." She said blandly.

"Not at all Miss…?" Will asked.

"Miss Halles." Miss Halls responded as she started leading him down a corridor.

William's choice of clothing wasn't much different from yesterday aside from the pale brown leather brimmed hat. "The names William, but just call me Will. Sooo, you come hear often Miss Halles?"

"I work hear Mr Highlander." Her bland tone only faltering slightly.

"Oh, government employed. Not grate pay but earns you respect I'm sure." She briefly turned her head to see his boyish smile. Will wasn't really courting her, he was just trying to have some fun. Unfortunately that kind of fun was a bit of a gamble, you ether got a friend or a cold shoulder.

"Your right but before you go any further you should know I'm not one of those bucket headed fools who chase after boys for no good reason. Nether am I a harlot who uses people to get where I want. I earned my post and I'm sticking by it." The vicious reply didn't faze Will at all. He half expected it to be honest.

The boyish smile dropped. "Good." She looked surprised, "I can respect that, but for your future reference," He wasn't to be malicious, "I'm just kidding around, I take my life and live it. It's hard to find a female friend in the weapons industry; only men ever seem to want the job. Everyone seems to forget Scorpio Industries is a research firm first. "

"Well you seem to enjoy it."

"I do, I love fireworks and I enjoy the attention but still the 'bucket headed fools' who idolize me are just annoying, if only they knew half the shady stuff I get up to." After that they both remained silent for the rest of the walk.

A few mazes later, "Hear we are; the cabinets personal briefing room… Will." She announced nervously, obviously a little disturbed by his deep explanation.

"Thank you Miss Halles… They've moved it since last time." Will eyed up the door.

"Yes they do that regularly. I would be careful if I were you, frankly the Prime Minister is pissed; nothing but bad news since yesterday. And, it's Kelly by the way." She said slightly nervously.

"_Her first name?"_ He was surprised, _"Looks like I've made a new friend today."_ "Thanks for the warning, not sure how much good it will do but thanks anyway." William knocked on the door and when beckoned he came in taking of his hat as he did.

To his left there was a large blank screen above a fire place. Straight ahead was a fantastic scenic overlook of the river Thames and finally stretching to Will right was the cabinet with the Prime Minister at the end of the table. He knew the room would be bugged, maybe even a CCTV camera somewhere so Will switched on the device in his pocket. The small black box would scramble any cameras or microphones in the room; he wanted this conversation off the record just in case.

"Mr Highlander," the Prime Minister Joseph Montgomery was a rather average man overall, dark hair and blue eyes, the perfect peace time leader for Britain. "I assume this is about the bio-weapons alienation?" He asked casually.

"Yes Mr Prime Minister it is." Will responded just as casually but still keeping a formal posture.

Joseph sighed, "You of all people should know how difficult this job is without actually doing it. All of the Highlander descendants have read your grate grandfathers diaries, hell you probably got a good look at the original before she gave it and the sword to the history museum." Will remained silent; there wasn't anything to say yet. "So why are you troubling me with Saudi Arabia's petty claims?" Joseph was obviously tired.

The American government wanted England to go back to the way it used to be, with spineless greedy fools in charge letting or even encouraging corporations to roll over the rights of other people. Saudi Arabia, parts of northern Africa, South America and most other non-Commonwealth country leaders were of the same opinion. Except Russia, the Commonwealth was on good terms with Russia because of sharing left wing political views. Will had even spent much of his spare time learning to speak Russian because of his regular dealings with them, selling them his merchandise and buying their raw materials.

"Because they're not just the Saudi's claims, their the RDA's too." Will didn't explain any further yet to add effect. It worked; the various men began to talk and argue amongst themselves.

"Quiet down! Quiet down, are you saying the RDA is behind this?" He was clearly not surprised but the information just as clearly annoyed him.

"Yes."

"Well that isn't going to stand up in a court is it now? What evidence do you have?" The man who spoke up obviously did not know William that well, he always came prepared.

Will gestured towards the screen behind him, "May I?" Joseph just nodded. Will grabbed a remote from a cradle beside the screen pulled a memory chip out of his writ mounted computer and jammed it into a slot on the side of the screen. He moved through the files and selected one set.

"This is the Nevada salt flat research centre two weeks ago:" A satellite image of a fenced compound with many buildings and a large landing pad boasting a dragon gunship.

"This is it a week later:" The image switched to another image of the base but this time it had a large new building attached to it.

"And finally yesterday:" A few people gasped and others started muttering to each other. The base was now a hive of activity, the new building was blown wide open, the rest of the facility was heavily damaged and what appeared to be hazmat clean up teams scattered the area.

One man snorted and asked "How the hell is the RDA blowing another one of their labs related to this?"

"_There's always one arrogant idiot."_ Will thought. "The blast patterns are almost identical to the Manchester incident, just larger. In addition the hazmat teams are consistent with the fact plasma becomes highly toxic when introduced to Selenium Chloride, the compound is present in D2-45 a cheap coolant popular with the RDA. On a side note D2-45 is banned in this country, for some reason its slightly flammable." The man looked a little embarrassed. "I don't have full proof evidence however..."

The Prime Minister interrupted, "You want the evidence to conveniently appear on your desk one morning from an anonymous sender. Right?"

Joseph had guessed almost perfectly but Will was feeling a little more playful. "Actually I was just going yo ask you for it but that seems to be a much more convenient solution."

The comment got a few snickers from the cabinet including Joseph. "I'm glade you approve of my ingenuity, but it will still take days to retrieve the information. While I know your layers good can he honestly hold them of for that long?"

Will, still smiling said, "David is already working on it, we needed time to move sensitive data and equipment away from the facilities that will be inspected. There was a foolish mistake, whether it was made by the Saudis or the RDA I'm unsure, but someone got greedy as usual and made the charges out as bio-weapons instead of chemical weapons. The charges will now end up in debate, discredit the accuser and take the days that we need to sort out."

"Well you obviously have things under control. Just make sure this doesn't back fire, I have enough to deal with already. The info will tern up in a few days, now get out of my meeting room you crazy bastard." The insult was meant affectionately in a way.

"Yes sir Mr Prime Minister." The mock seriousness got one last smile before he left the room.

* * *

Don't ask me why but the river Thames is pronounced teams if some of you are confused. Why I hear you ask? Well I don't know, I didn't invent this crazy language.

Forgotten Shock Trooper: I think I mentioned the Manchester incident wasn't serious, only a few casualties.


	4. Investigation Insanity

_"Italics" _are thoughts

* * *

February 9th 2145

Three days had passed and everything was ready. All equipment that did not need to be there was long gone. The Manchester facility was their leading laboratory for plasma but due to the Manchester incident (as it was referred to) it had a black mark on its record. The plasma reactor that breached was only a meter in diameter but it blew through the roof in a rather spectacular light show. Fortunately no one was killed and only one person was badly hurt. Will estimated the one that blew the RDA lab to be at least five meters in diameter.

The investigators were due to arrive any minute now. Will was waiting in a loading dock for trucks but he hated waiting so he started fiddling with some mech designs on his wrist computer.

After half an hour after he finally herd the sound of rotor blades. "Open it up he called to one of the workers close to a loading door. All the facilities workers were assembled in the large garage for interviews. Stepping out of the garage, his long hair flying all over the place and his hand on hat, towards the blue a white UN Samson aircraft. When the rotors began to die down five people, two women and three men stepped out.

"Ah so the golden ticket winners have arrived! Excellent. My name is William Highlander, this is my secretary Miss Diana Noble and that," he gestured at the large modern building, "is my plasma laboratory, or as you might know it magic factory." Somehow he kept a polite smile and tone all the way though the mocking speech.

A rather plain man in a light blue shirt with tie spoke up, "Are you quite done insulting UN dignitaries and harming your chances at get away with your crimes?" He asked snidely.

"Are you quite done insulting me with the mere idea that UN dignitaries would decide the outcome of their investigation over light hearted banter? No? Good. The magical mystery tour awaits!" He turned and led them inside.

One of them, a woman came up beside him, "Hi I'm Christi, I'm meant to be interviewing your work force..." She was sweet and well-mannered from what Will could tell.

"Ah of course, I was informed in advanced and I have a quarter of this facility's employees ready." They were now inside and one hundred and twenty five men were chatting, playing cards and arguing over schematics. "The other four quarters will arrive in turn over the next few days depending how fast you can get through each group. My secretary and aid Miss Noble, she will be helping you while the rest of us get on with the other things."

"Oh thanks, that will be lovely."

Will couldn't tell if she was faking the naive sweetness or not, _"Miss Noble should be able to handle her."_

"The office over there should be suitable." He directed her to the logistics office in the corner. "The rest of you if you will follow me to a suitable place we can discuss what will happen."

"We don't need to discuss anything, we are here to investigate your facility at our own discretion." The second woman announced, she was the stereotypical bureaucrat sort.

"Very well, but if you end up blowing up half the city because of your technical incompetence it will be on your head! Not mine." _"Typical UN superiority and authority complex."_ Will thought to himself.

"I am an experienced technician; you can trust me not to let them do anything to case an accident or damage to your property." The investigator was a tall Chinese man carrying a tool box, no doubt full of measurement and diagnostic equipment.

"_Idiot."_ "Very well, when was the last time the United Nations comity performed a technological survey of the Commonwealth? 2109, fifty years of independent technological progress has left our systems almost incompatible. Your 'experience' means nothing here, you will be escorted by one of my own technicians at all times." William was almost surprised at his own hostility; apparently his Grate Grandfather was prone to similar outbursts. The man who received his scolding looked offended but did not say anything more.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. The investigators behaved themselves and apart from the man in the blue shirt (Will eventually found out his name was Benjamin) started to show him some respect. William eventually began to become more respectful of them in return, _"No sense making their jobs unnecessarily difficult, working for the UN is stressful. Better to show them who's boss around here and get them on my side." _

The day was winding down and coming to an end. William was escorting the inspectors to the Samson that was going to take them to their accommodations for the week.

"Well I have to admit your set up is quite competent and unique." Shin-Yun (the tall Chinese guy) commented.

Christi commented next, "Your staff were polite and appear to be well trained, but I was concerned when some of them mentioned you have been doing a lot of moving around lately..."

"_Dam! Some one must have let it slip."_ He had to think quickly, "We have recently completed research and development on a new line of infantry weapons, we're shipping them out for filed testing." It wasn't strictly speaking a lie, he had started field testing equipment for the Commonwealth Defence Force's (CDF) new Ground Pounder elite infantry program. "If everything goes to plan you will be hearing a lot about them in a months time, but probably only off of the BBC."

Ben interrupted at this point, "I thought you said this was a laboratory, not a weapons manufacturing facility!"

"It isn't, but Scorpio Industries is required to be flexible to satisfy our costumers. The new project requires specialist equipment our factories are not equipped to manufacture." Will countered in a sardonic manner. "Well hear we are. I'm afraid I won't be available for the hole time your staying hear but I will be around just in case."

"I would prefer it personally if this was the last of you we see during our investigation, personally I think your hiding something." Ben had just put a sour note in the evening.

"Yes, I am frankly. You see I have seen many other companies develop some very exciting new technologies only to see the RDA suddenly come up with something similar, when the smaller company tries to claim copyright offences the RDA layers sweep them aside and the juries bank accounts mysteriously triple in size. I've seen it happen too many times before, it is not going to happen on Commonwealth soil." Will was a little charismatic in ways.

Benjamin however looked offended by the idea. "Do you honestly believe we will fall for that ridiculous left wing propaganda?"

Will snorted, "You are familiar with superluminal communication correct? The original company that perfected it and made it reality was Commuinitech Solutions, the RDA stole it off of them. If you don't believe me..." Will connected to the company server through his wrist computer, downloading the necessary files, "this data chip contains all the necessary evidence to convince an unbribed judge and jury of that."

He handed the data chip to Ben who eyed it suspiciously and then pocketed it. "I... will look into it later, but don't expect it to have any effect on the investigation." He said hesitantly.

"Good, that's all I ask." There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Will broke the silence when they reached the improvised heli-pad, "So, its been a pleasure and I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay."

Christi responded in kind, "The pleasure was ours Mr Highlander."

"Pleas, call me Will, or if you insist on calling me by a title it's Dr Highlander. I have a Ph.D. In Physics and Mathematics after all." They gave a few questioning looks. _"Maybe I over did that last part?"_

Shin-Yun spoke up, "Well, fair well Dr Highlander, we will see you some time in the future, of that I am sure."

"Goodbye" The bureaucratic woman said.

Will waved childishly as they climbed aboard the Samson and took off. After the sound of rotor blades finally disappeared Diana came up beside Will. "So, anything I should know about with relation to Christi?" Will asked.

"Not really, according to the men she didn't dig to far but seemed distressed when she found out about us moving things around." She was calm and was beginning to look tired, to be honest Will was too.

"I'm going to send out a memo saying alls well then retied for the day. Chase up who ever let it slip about moving stuff around and tell him off, then get your self some sleep you look drained."

"The staff hear can do that to you if you let your guard down..." Will gave her a funny look and then she noticed, "Oh sorry, that sounded so dodgy, sorry."

Will gave a shallow laugh, "Don't worry just forget it happened. I think I'll send Conner and James to harass those fools tomorrow, they can be really tiresome."

"which, the investigators or the terrible twosome?"

"Both." Will said it as if she had just asked what collier the sky was.

She just chucked "See you tomorrow then." and they went their separate ways.

* * *

Sorry there isn't mutch action, it is going to take a while to heat up.


	5. Calling Chaos to the Court Room

February 16th 2145

The fabric heated seats were heaven compared to the coming hell of the court room. The passing week was irritating; the investigators got annoyed when they were dined access to a part of the lab; lateral motors or magnetic weapons for those with a weak vocabulary.

Will's company executives were with him on the plane, apparently they had all been called as witnesses against him, the English UN representative, Thomas Winter, was there as well. Unfortunately the flight to the UN Island in the Atlantic Ocean was far too short.

When he emerged from the Commonwealth's diplomatic jet what he saw came close to offending him if Will didn't know better, but he hoped that wasn't naivety.

Stepping down the ladder he looked sharply at the man who was about to greet them but interrupting him before he could, "Where is my transportation? And what is that thing doing there?" Will gestured to the offensive looking prisoner transport van.

The greeter still smiling but fighting back a worry look, "Um, sir... that is your transportation."

"Excuse me?"

"Uh... I said it was your..."

Will couldn't believe the audacity of whoever arranged this. "I know what you said! I want to know why it is my transportation."

He was stuttering in fear from the onslaught, "Well, uh, there wasn't anything else available sir, an, and you are convicted of making chemical weapons." He said weekly in defence.

"Bull shit, innocent until proven guilty. These charges are over a technicality anyway. If there isn't anything else available within the next halve hour we'll walk." The rest of the group had got out by now and were all muttering and nodded in agreement.

"Bu, but sir you'll all be late!" His complaints were as annoying as a whining kid.

"Better late than never, there have been too many... convenient accidents in those things." There was a high probability if he searched the thing thoroughly he would fiend it would be rigged to explode, maybe not to kill but to be a pain in the ass most certainly. _"Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but showing up in a prison transport will not help me one bit."_

Then Will noticed something, "How about that? Over there?"

"That? You can't turn up in a doughnut delivery van!" The greater was almost astonished at the crazy suggestion.

The UN rep broke out in laughter, "Why not? I've seen crazier happen in my long career."

"But that would be inappropriate, it's just not done!"

"Listen lad, I've been at my job for thirty years and never NEVER have I seen someone turn up in a prison transport because nothing else was available." The old rep looked insulted by the idea. "I've seen an ice cream van used as a funeral carriage, a cement mixer for a wedding and a speed boat deliver a pregnant woman to hospital. Why not turn up to court in a doughnut van?"

Will felt proud that however grey his receding here was the man had not lost his firm attitude. The greeter looked dumb founded and embarrassed as the party made its way to the van.

As William approached the van his group got some strange looks from the two men supposedly in charge of it. Will made it clear and simple, "Excuse me but I need to commander your vehicle for important services, namely get to court not too late. Oh and guys..." He called to the rest of his group, "Driving!" With that he got in, adjusted the seat and rear view mirror and waited for everyone to climb aboard.

Minutes later the media storm at the front entertainer was getting board. The calm murmurs soon ascended into chaotic babbling as a doughnut van sped around the corner and screeched to a stop, confused reporters looking around for an explanation.

The crowd went silent as AC/DC's Back in Black began to play. Will emerged from the driver's side door wearing his usual attire, a T-shirt, undone combat jacket hanging loosely, jeans, walking boots, cow boy hat and a pair of blue tinted sun glasses. He stepped forward to address the crowd of now muttering media wolves. A wicked smile was across his face and less noticeably a box of doughnuts under his right arm.

He flipped up the screen of his wrist computer and began in a fake American accent, "My fellow amphibians, I am here to day to inform you of our intentions to force other countries around the world to give us there oil for extortionately low prices. If they refuse we will..." He lifted up his glasses and squinted at the screen, "...nuke them all back to the Stone Age? Wait a sec." He pretended to tap his screen a few times, "Sorry about that, got the presidents next speech and my own mixed up.

"Dear fellow members of the Human race, I am here today because the Saudi Arabian government and the RDA wish to preserve their profitable exploitation of the world's people and their governments. The reason for the accusation is that Plasma reactors, like anything else in life, can be potentially dangerous if handled childishly. But they are a clean renewable energy that can be relied upon and that threatens the superiority of petroleum oil and unobtanium anti-mater reactors. That is all." With that he spun on his heal and marched inside. Ignoring questions and his good friends following him.

Will burst into the frantic court room, it quickly settled. He casually sat down putting the doughnuts in front of him, grabbing one, leaning back on his chair and putting his feet on the table. David, his lawyer, sat down next to him and helped himself to a doughnut. "You may begin." And Will took a chunk out of the doughnut maintaining a childish smile as he chewed.

William planned to make an absolute mockery of the 'trial', on national television. A limited number of cameras were aloud in court these days, just shows how corrupting money can be. No one would dear touch him again after this if all went well.

The female African American judge called the room to order. "Good of you to finally join us Mr Highlander."

"It's Doctor your honour." Will was tired of the continuous mistake.

"Excuse me?"

"I said it's Doctor; I have Ph.D. s in Physics and Mathematics." He stated proudly.

"Very well, Dr Highlander... You are accused of researching and manufacturing chemical weapons. How do you plead?"

"The first part; not guilty. The latter is a more complicated issue." He took another bite out of the doughnut.

"How is it complicated? You are either guilty or not guilty."

"I beg to differ your honour. You see, I am manufacturing plasma reactors, but not as chemical weapons. This entire accusation is based on the idea that they are meant to be chemical weapons, they are not." Will noticed the prosecutor for the first time, a shady American fellow, short dark hair and silver sun glasses. "I suppose that is saying not guilty really."

"What douse the prosecution have to say about this?" The judge asked.

The man stood up, he had a strong Texan accent, "Maim the evidence my client, the Saudi Arabian government, has gathered evidence to suggest otherwise. The plasma reactor is a dangerous unstable device, even a small breach can theoretically result in catastrophe, Manchester proved that. In addition it produces vast amounts of toxic gasses when introduced to Selenium Chloride, most importantly found in the popular coolant D2-45. If such an incident were to take place we predict everything in a two mile radius would be contaminated." He then spent a very long very boring half hour presenting the necessary technical evidence.

"Very well Mr Hillton, how dose the defence respond to this?" She sounded tired after the long speech.

David's turn, "Your argument, Mr Hillton is flawed in so many ways I almost don't know were to begin. To create an explosion of the force you are suggesting the reactor would need to be ten meters in diameter. Not a very portable weapon if I may add.

"Secondly the coolant D2-45 is illegal in all Commonwealth countries. It has been known to spontaneously combust and was responsible for the close call at New York when an anti-matter reactor almost went critical. It has been forbidden from use in conjunction with plasma by the company, if it is then the fault rest firmly with the user.

He was starting to sound smug now, "And I would also like to ask the accusing where they acquired there evidence from? After all companies don't just hand out samples of there latest technologies for analysis do they?"

The prosecution decided to try and take advantage of the situation, "Are you implying Saudi Arabia is incapable of developing advanced technology?"

"David." Will had interrupted his lawyer before he could answer and gave him a knowing look.

"Your honour my client would like to respond to this query." David requested.

"I think I will allow that." She answered, "What do you have to say?"

William stood up, cleared his throat, took a deep breath, "Yes." and sat down.

The audience slowly rose into an uproar over the simple word. "Order! Order!" The judge was banging her hammer wildly until the crowd settled. "Care to explain your answerer Mr Highlander?"

"Yes, and its Doctor." The plain, calm tone was almost annoying.

She sighed, "Doctor then, you are saying the Saudi Arabian people are incapable of technological progress?"

"For the third time yes."

"This is outrageous!" Will and many others turned their heads to see who was interrupting. It was the Saudi rep. "We will not stand for this slander! We demand an immediate apology."

The words, _"Moronic ignoramus."_ immediately jumped to Wills mind. "I never said that you're idiots, just greedy religious zealots that won't accept new ideas. The only reason you survive in the modern world is because you have oil to sell. Plasma is a new idea that threatens to change that, this is the only reason these charges are coming from you. You claim to have produced plasma? The only advanced technology you have was bought off America! Your main source of electricity are coal power plants for heavens sake!"

The rep looked outraged, "Your honour Saudi Arabia will not stand for this we..."

"We can discus this at a later time! I would like to get on with the trial." The man reluctantly sat down at the judge's decree.

Will poked his tong out childishly at the man, _"If you want to degrade someone, __make a joke out of them." _

"And you 'Doctor', why don't you start acting your age?"

"As old as I feel your honour," Will retorted "but I believe my lawyer was trying to make a point before he was interrupted."

The judge nodded towards David and he continued, "Mr Hillton, again, may I ask where your evidence came from?"

"Funny you should ask that, it came from an anemones source. We looked over the numbers and found it to be true, you your self admitted these findings to be true."

"That I have but if I may draw your attention to an incident that occurred approximately two weeks ago," he taped a remote and and a large screen sprang to life. "This is the Nevada salt flat research facility of the RDA. Images courtesy of the Commonwealth satellite network." The image was the same one Will had shown the Prime Minister. "This was it on the first of February," The same facility with heavy construction activity. "and the fourth where construction was complete. At this point if we switch to electro magnetic spectrum you will see some very unusual readings."

The judge interrupted, "Are you going some where with this? Because this could get you and the commonwealth into some serious trouble."

"Pleas bear with me, your honour. This will all make sense in a second." Was David's response. "This, ladies and gentlemen is the sixth of February." There was a gasp and the court room stirred up at the site of the nearly levelled facility.

"Order." The crowd calmed quickly at the judges command.

David continued, "The blast radius is consistent with a plasma reactor of approximately six meters in diameter with a dangerously thin unreinforced shell. We also have these pictures provided by operatives sent in to confirm our suspicion."

The screen now showed a zoomed in view of the blown reactor. "If you look carefully you can see what remains of the reactor casing." The monitor highlighted the blown open spear, "and hear you can see the remains of the plasmatic resin storage and injection modules." A set of large broken glass cylinders became highlighted. "We also have soil and air samples showing the presence of the toxic solution released by the plasma / Selenium Chloride reaction also gathered by the same team. We estimate the area will be uninhabitable for at least five years."

Will started thinking about the incident, _"The RDA stole weapons grade plasma, not meant for continues power output. As for that casing, its a disgrace that its so thin! Plasma reactions also need a specific magnetic field to stay stabilised for long periods."_

The prosecution turned defence spoke up, "This is irrelevant, all you are proving is that the RDA has been experimenting with formulas similar to your plasma."

"Normally I would agree, but when we were tolled a high bandwidth transmission intercepted with signature RDA encoding. When decoded they thought it was gibberish but it terns out it was the evidence the Saudi Arabian government used today. In addition a Scorpio Industries transport heading to Australia was attacked by well trained and well equipped pirates fitting the description of RDA mercenaries."

"_They'll be using the postal service from now on I think."_ Will thought to himself.

The court room was in shock, both from the evidence and the fact that the Commonwealth was intercepting such transmissions. "Grate, not even an hour into the trial and already I have two new cases on my hands." The judge muttered to no one in particular. "If you are quite finished Mr Miler I think the offence would like to speak."

"Very well." As David sat down he and William realised Mr Hillton was not as worried as he should be. Not good.

"I would like to call the defendant to the stand."

"Very well, the prosecution calls Dr William Highlander to the stand."

"_Well what goes around comes around."_ where Will's only thoughts as he marched up yo the stand.

"Dr William Highlander, am I correct?" Mr Hillton said.

"No it's the third actually." He wanted to make this as difficult as possible for him.

He chuckled "The third of course... Where were you on the twenty second of September twenty one forty four?"

"_Shit, how dose he know about that!"_ Will trying to keep his cool looked around thoughtfully scratching his head. "You know I think I was on holiday that week. Hiking in New Zealand with some colleagues." He hated having to lie.

Mr Hillton looked at him with mock confusion. "Are you sure It wasn't northern California/Nevada?"

"Why would I go there? The West Coast Resistance would just love to sink their claws into my corporate butt. Their also my most regular pirates."

"I fail to see how this is reliant Mr Hillton?" The judge queried.

"Pleas bear with me your honour, this is going somewhere." Will did not like this. "How then do you explain magnetic projectiles that were fired from one of your weapons at the pilot, co-pilot (of a dragon gunship) and Colonel Marcus Talons?"

Will had to fake confusion, "Which one? We have many fine Gauss based weapons... I can even give you a catalogue if you like?"

"How about a model 36 magnetic acceleration rifle? Prolapse the same one you signed for at your testing facility in Australia?" He was using an harsh, accusing tone on Will now.

"I think I recall using a m.a.r for a little hunting on the trip." Will had proof to support his alibis but didn't want to put them foreword yet for fear of looking suspicious.

"Really? I didn't know you hunted. But surly you would fear the consequences of using military grade weapons for such trivial matters?" Now Mr Hillton was just being antagonising.

"If you had done your research properly you would know its classed 'prototype', not 'military grade' so the owner (under Commonwealth law) can do what he pleases with it. Within the bounds of the law of coerce."

"But you were not on Commonwealth soil at the time were you? You were in a rather convenient sniping nest on the twenty second of September as testified by samples of your hair found there!" He was looking William in the eyes now angrily. "You murdered Colonel Marcus Talons and his crew! I f someone could do that then they can most certainly develop and deploy chemical weapons."

The only thing Will could think was, _"Shit, my long hair has come back to haunt me."_

David spoke up at this point, "Objection your honour! This has nothing to do with the current case."

Will spoke out next, "Besides even if I did kill him he is a war criminal by my and my government's reckoning. It is legal by Commonwealth law to shoot War criminals on site." He remembered that day well...


	6. The Folly of Flashbacks

"Normal": English speach

_"Italics"_: thoughts

* * *

September 22nd 2144

The West Coast Resistance were luring an American task force into yet another ambush. They had been sent to investigate the disappearance of one of their large airborne transports carrying weapons from factories in east Oregon. The West Coast Resistance needed them so they took them.

West Cost piracy methods were crude but efficient; they would jam the com systems then harass the air craft into landing. The captured pilots had a choice; join up in which case their family could come along or be duped in the nearest slum. Will was surprised by how many new members they got that way. Scorpio Industries and the Commonwealth could only do so much under the radar to the West Coast so they resorted to piracy.

William was taking a week's 'vacation' with the West Coast to help them out. The combat experience was invaluable to him. Knowing exactly what a soldier needed and when gave him an edge over the competition. He also enjoyed their company and the scenery, the Resistance was held up deep in the internationally protected red wood forests. They protected their territory fiercely; being a lumberjack was no longer as appealing as it used to be.

However much he wanted to enjoy his week-long stay Will couldn't, he had a job to do. It was rumoured that Colonel Marcus Tarlon had been sent to investigate and William was gunning for him. Marcus was a monster; in Venezuela he deliberately bombed schools, hospitals and churches where civilians were taking refuge. He called it psychological warfare; the oil that the American government wanted was enough to justify it to the UN, but not to him. The lure was a short range distress signal curtsey of one of the transport pilots. Will was perched amongst a tall rocky out crop, waiting.

The rawer of four engines materialised and then he saw it. A Dragon gun ship. Not what Will expected but that just meant a bigger prise. Will zoomed in on the cockpit, he was there all right. The Dragon scanned the area but will was fortunately out of range and well hidden. The magnetic acceleration rifle (m.a.r.) was of his own design, diamond tipped tungsten armour penetrative rounds especial for the job of busting helicopter canopies.

He took aim, his target painfully unaware of his impending doom. Will fired, the magnetic bristles lining the upper and lower halves of the barrel speeding the bullet to a fraction of the speed of light. The canopy shattered. The air ignited inches behind it. The Skull of his target, Marcus Tarlon, flew apart.

The pilot looked around at the aftermath in confusion before realising in terror what had happened. No time to waste Will fired the second shot the pilots head flying apart in a similar fashion. The co-pilot took over, Will fired a third time but missed, only shattering the glass. The ignited trail of air reviling his location. He looked down his sight, the man looked right back at him, knowing it was him self or that man. "pleas forgive me." William muttered as if some how the man could hear him. Then the fourth round hit home killing the co-pilot instantly.

The Dragon spun out of control crashing side on into the ground. Will activate a jamming device. A nearby group of Resistance members were alerted by it, a salvage team to strip the weapons and useful equipment.

Will climbed down from his hidi-hole thinking about what he had just done. He felt a little ill every time he killed someone so personally. _"At least I put that monster out of commission; visual anti justice is the only justice that works any more."_Irony was the second thing to come to mind, he had actually had a hand in designing the formidable beast. No one had listened to him during the process despite the hefty pay cheque; if they had what just happened, might not have come to be. He was appalled by the uneven distribution of weapons and the exposed cockpit.

When he reached the bottom Will wiped away a large piece of camo-netting packing it into the small buggy it reviled. He jumped in and drove off towards the red wood safe haven.

* * *

Authers Notes: I'm afraid your going to have to get used to an inconstant length of chapters, I've got good general plan in my head but I'm making up some of the details as I go along. I'm also using this story to help me with my grammar and spelling so sorry for any mistakes.

To a sitting duck: I am not entirely sure about the physics behind it but from what I've read I get the feeling you need to use unobtanium for anti-mater fuel. Maybe because you need a slow, continual, controlled reaction and something to carry the energy created out but I wouldn't know, I'm just using it for the basis for my story. Besides the massive amounts of energy created by such a rapid reaction would probably blow the power plant wide open.

As for my kind of plasma, it is a fictional substance. For the effectiveness issues would you build a gas line into the middle of a forest to cook a few sausages? No you would use a fire made from wood. The idea about plasma is it can be made on Earth. You don't have to go five light years to get the ingredients making it far cheaper and much faster to develop.

Any and all future comments are welcome as long as you don't go over the top at witch point I may start to ignore you (but only if you give me good reason to).

I'm not sure if I explained it properly in the story but it is the combination of chemicals in the plasma and coolant that make dangerous chemicals. The explosion from the breach spreads them over a large area making it a chemical weapon. The explosion itself would not be large enough to be overly risky.


	7. Decisions, Decisions

"Normal" = English speach

_"Italics" = thoughts_

* * *

March 8th 2145

Thunder flashed in the distance, the crash of thunder just behind it. A heavy downpour or rain washing over the stone and brick of the well decorated traditional looking mansion. On the top floor was a large triangular window stretching from floor to ceiling of the large attic space room, large desk for drawing designs stood in front of it.

He did not know what to think of his life any more. _"What has become of me, what __will become of me?__" _Deep in thought as he swirled the glass of whisky in his hand, looking out from his families estate, over across the fields at London in the distance. It was a nice old mansion given to his grate grand father for his retirement. It was by no means empty however, most of the Highlander line and the many who joined it lived there, at least temporarily for holidays or weekends. It was grate for the kids as well as it was filled with secret passages and hidden rooms. There was one that was impossible to fined unless you knew it was there. It was a laboratory that contained the secrets that created Loki.

But that was behind him now, water under the bridge. He had won the chemical weapons trial but ended up in a Commonwealth court for the 'murder'. He was charged with the unauthorised assassination of a public enemy with out due courtly proceedings, visual anti justice for short. His punishment; five years of servitude in exile. It wasn't as bad as it sounded, you had a range of options depending on your skill set and Will had quite a skill set. His most prominent options were assisting repair and refit efforts on a sea fort, living with the West Coast Resistance, assisting the Followers of the Apocalypse, assisting in the construction of atmospheric converters and other humanitarian efforts abroad and joining the SAS as a combat engineer.

The sea fort and atmospheric converters would have been boring for Will as he had personally designed the vast majority of Commonwealth used ships and wouldn't learn anything new.

The West Coast Resistance was tempting but if he was caught with them he could not return to England unless there was a significant shift in world politics favouring the West Coast's eco-warrior attitude. Will was parity convinced that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

The Followers of the Apocalypse were a sound option, they helped people in slums and on the streets of mega cities become independent of extortionate food vendors, teaching them agricultural tricks that would work even in those places. They also operated in the now devastated Venezuela after the USA finished the war by nuking their capital; Caracas. Unfortunately it was mainly scraping together mushrooms, maggots and makeshift medicine but since they gained the support of a surprisingly democratic street gang that had taken up residence in abandoned subway tunnels under New York things had improved. But William new he would miss the greenery that was very limited outside the Commonwealth.

As for the SAS he knew that they as an individual department weren't big on formalities but the inevitable hair cut, the lack of choice in mission and weapons were discouraging for him. He had a strange tendency not to trust equipment that he hadn't built or taken apart a modified in some manner.

However Will was given one final option; Pandora. He was especially surprised with the option until the judge pointed out he had the perfect skill set and correlating attitude of a big time saboteur. Going undercover into exclusively RDA territory not to mention the environmental hazards would make Pandora the most dangerous option and add twelve years to his 'exile' but add time to his preparation for it.

"_But the possibilities!"_ Will thought to himself, _"Meeting Grace Augustine, the excitement, adventure and most of all the Na'vi! Actual alien life!" _sure there was danger, _"Hell, it has almost all the downs of every other option! but the rewards would be so worth it."_ It was that once in a life time opportunity you couldn't say no to. He was going to Pandora.

There wasn't much left for him hear; his reputation was ruined, his sister had left under shady circumstances years ago and he was running out of ideas to keep Scorpio Industries top side up. _"Time to move on."_ He thought.

So Will finished his whisky and began his plans, after all he would be leaving in two months. His first priority was cracking the power plasma formulae or leaving someone else who could with as much help as he could. Then he needed to gather his belongings for the trip. The Commonwealth used crates marked 'open on company orders only' to smuggle equipment and supplies to their operatives on Pandora. As he was to be acting as an individual operative he was given a large chunk of space in the next one. He had also got in as a low ranking officer so he was permitted to take a custom side arm as long as it was compatible with their ammunition. But there were also other things he needed.

So Will went on what was possibly the most important supply run of his life; Pandora was hot so he was going to need a good hand held fan.

* * *

March 13th 2145

It was done. It was almost to good to be true but somewhat serial. He had for-filed his grate grand fathers legacy by creating Loki and now he had for-filed his grand fathers legacy by completing plasma. He just hoped his mother didn't have anything hiding away for him to complete as well.

His last few days had gone by slowly, up in his room most of the time only coming out for food. It was so ironic that the last of the time he could spend with his family he used to solve equations in isolation.

Will sighed, _"Such a shame I won't get to enjoy the lime light of its release."_ he thought sarcastically. Loki would be in charge from now on. Given what Loki was Will was not sure everyone would welcome him with open arms but he was the only one Will trusted to carry on the company, he was a Highlander after all.

William's time left was short. The first thing he had to do was prepare letters to explain where he was going and why. _"Seventeen years! How am I going to explain that? Mum and Dad will be shocked."_ But he had no choice other then to settle down and get on with it.

* * *

March 29th 2145

Three fizzes and three targets were incinerated by purple fire, a shallow thunk and a grenade landed between two more blowing them to smithereens. Will gave a wicked smile at the effectiveness of his brand new model seven plasma rifle with scope and under slung pump action grenade luncher. Sensitive parts were well sealed, approximately one hundred shots per canister of weapons grade plasmatic resin. Not perfect but at least decent for jungle fighting.

The firing range was early quiet now. The array of weapons laid out on the table next to him. Will hoped he had made a good choice in equipment. Not the robust stuff that was recommended for jungle war-fair, Pandora would push his repair skills to the limit.

His next weapon was a type 36 m.a.r, the same weapon he used to kill Marcus Talons. It could accelerate a projectile to a fraction of the speed of light or no faster then a slug. It had multiple speed settings and ammunition types for different situations but its main use was a sniper rifle. He would have limited amo for it once he got to Pandora so he had to pack a lot for it.

The antique scoped forty five calibre revolver was fortunately compatible with the RDA's favoured wasp revolver. As an officer he would be permitted to take a personalised side arm. It had probably been everywhere on Earth between his grate grandfather, grandfather, mother and himself. Easy to maintain as well so he could rely on it in times of need.

Then there was Will's sword. A three foot cutlass with a well decorated handle. Despite its ancient origins it was a modern weapon. It had a diamond edged blade and a high voltage battery built into the handle to shook opponents. The sheath ha a built in oiling and cleaning system to ensure long life of the blade.

A vicious ten inch combat knife with sturdy handle. He could take that in his luggage.

Then there was the other equipment. Most prominent of which was a plasma based jet pack capable of sustained flight, if the user was skilled. Will had spent near a million renting patches of land to practice on in privet.

His mask; custom made for the trip it had air filters, a hud/computer that linked with his wrist computer, jet pack and weapons, motion sensors, enhanced hearing modules, thermal vision, night vision, radio and much more.

Will's trusty wrist computer; would allow him to hack into remote control vehicles and drones the RDA was using on Pandora. With it came a large box of detonators, he could attach them to almost any kind of explosive and use the computer to detonate them. Also had a few of his favourite songs on it to boot but best of all it counted as civilian equipment so he could pack it with his personal gear.

Many other nik naks and last but not least hair follicle stimulant. He wanted to look good when he inevitably went rouge. Everything that went in the smuggling crate was the contingency plan. If he was discovered or If William needed to he could try and slug it out on his own, performing a hit and run war against the RDA mercenary force. A part of him secretly hoped for it.

* * *

March 30th 2145

His preparations were complete. The equipment had been sent off to MI-6 for the arrangements to be made. Once a package like that was in the system no body dared to ask what it was for fear of losing their job, one of the down sides for the RDA because they were so feared by everyone. It was one of the reasons the Commonwealth fought them so hard. If no one opposed them if no one stood up to them and said 'That is enough, this is were we draw the line' what would remain of humanity would be effectively slaves. The RDA had a solid iron grip on the media in America, if you could control what the people know you could control what people thought and you could control the vast majorities opinion.

These would be William's last few weeks on Earth so he would enjoy them. Over the next few weeks he threw parties at random, went to heaters, gave five hundred pounds to a tramp, ten thousand to a run down school and many other things he hadn't done but wanted too. But eventually time ran out and some suits came knocking on his door.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope the sudden jump isn't too much for you guys, I just need some thing to get my character to Pandora. I know the MI6 thing sounds a bit cheesy and your probably wandering what Loki is, unfortunately it's going to be a while before he gets important but for the keen eyed I will be dropping hints along the way.

a sitting duck: Well if your in for the fun of it; I've never seen a solar cooker work in a rain storm but I can and have lit a fire in one, took a lot of work though. I know rain storms have little effect on anti-mater and I probably have some research and correcting to do at some point in time.

Good night all, even if it's mid day for me right now, and hope you keep reading.


	8. Final Farewell

April 28th 2145

So this was it. The last he would see of Earth for seventeen years, eleven if he was lucky. New York had become a real shit hole in the past decade. He had spent the last couple of days in a dreary hotel, fortunately the food was better then he expected. His alias was going to be Captain Jamie Evans, served in the British army for five years the last two in the SAS as an combat Engineer and marksman. They didn't note his experience with explosives as it would probably point out his role as a saboteur should suspicion arise.

He had to shave and cut his hair before he left, he had never really had his hair this short before. Will planed to spike it up once he got to Pandora, It should make him less recognisable but more distinct at the same time, yeah he was a real attention seeker. He was also granted augments by the Commonwealth; mussel densening therapy, and skeletal grafting. Before that however Will had already got eye implants and digestive tolerance implants. He was now stronger, faster, could see better, drink pure poison and his bones were near unbreakable. Standard issue for tactical squads in the Commonwealth.

A grey Jeep had come to pick him up. He loaded his small crate and duffel bag of personal effects into the back and jumped over the low door into the back passenger side seat.

"Your a lively one. Captain Jamie Evans, right?" The driver asked, from around here in New York judging by the accent.

"Yup that's me." Will said in the kind of bright tone that would be unusual in this city.

"OK lets get a moving. I've got two more of you to pick up before we head to the space port." He said casually. After half a minuet of driving the driver decided to try and make small talk. "The names Fill by the way, your British right?"

"Yeah, nice place, good people, fresh air." Will answered putting emphasis on the last point.

"Haven't seen that many of you around, all held up in your fortress of a country."

Will gave a short laugh, "Year that's what we want you to think. Haven't you heard? We've got a spy network second to none." He barged.

"And a secret police to sit along side it from what I've heard on the news. Outrageous levels of cavil unrest."

Will frowned at the comment. "That's a new one, haven't heard that before." If that was being broadcast on the news it was in breech of the Commonwealth's and RDA's little media escapade. _"May be I stirred up more trouble then I thought." _

The Jeep stopped in a quiet street. "Hay you mined going to ring the door bell? Apartment twenty three a Mr Gondolaz."

Will shrugged "Why not?" and jumped out of the Jeep. When he got to the door he saw the intercom, Mr Gondolaz third from the top. Will pressed the button, "Mr Gondolaz?"

"Yeah, who is it?" came a strong Mexican accent.

"You have won an all expenses paid luxury cruse to the moon of Pandora. Do you except this prize?" he said impersonating a games show host.

"So I have a joker to pick me up aye? I will be right out."

About half a minuet later the door opened and and a Mexican feller came out struggling with a duffel bag and a small crate.

"Let me give you a hand with that." Will grabbed the crate and lifted it into the back of the Jeep.

"Thanks man. What's your name by the way?" He asked as they got themselves into the Jeep.

"Jamie, Capitan Jamie Evans." He said trying to hide discomfort with the name. _ "It __going to take a while to get used to that name." _

"Officer aye? Glad you like helping out us grunts, I hate snobby officers. Mines Corporal Davis by the way."

"Well I wouldn't worry about that." Fill interrupted, "I've been doing this taxi service for months. Haven't seen any smug officers coming out, seen a lot going in thou." He said grimly.

After a pause in the conversation Will decided to brake the silence. "Well that was certainly... cryptic." The comment got a short laugh at any rate.

"Hay but seriously guys, Pandora changes people. They get back to Earth and all they can do is complain about what a mess it is." Fill said distastefully.

They continued chatting until their next stop. It was a cleaner part of town, a big sky scraper of apartments. Davis offered to fetch the next guy, a Lieutenant by the name of Frank Burns. When he finally came out he was carrying a duffel bag and a crate, he looked pissed. A man carnying himself arrogantly soon came out after. He quickly overtook the corporal.

"Hurry it up privet, we don't have all day." He said as he walked past him.

"It's corporal." he announced with hostility. "Freaking S O B." he whispered under his breath. He threw the luggage disrespectfully into the back of the Jeep and climbed back into the seat next to Will. This officer had clearly rattled his cage.

Fill continued with his story. "Where was I? Oh yeah; so he said to me 'If this is Ohio where are all the fucking corn fields?' And of course we where both so drunk neither of us realised we were standing stark naked in the middle of one! I'm just glad my mom didn't fined out."

Davis and Will broke out laughing but this clearly annoyed Frank up front. "Would you three stow it? I could get more respect out of a bunch of teenagers!" he scolded them.

Will spoke out first. "Oh relax will you? It's our last day on Earth, we're just trying to have a good time of it."

"He is meant to be keeping his eyes on the road and you two should not be questioning your superiors."

He was clearly trying to threaten them and Will did not like that one bit. "First of all we're still off duty so you can't tell us squat unless we want to hear it." He then opened a can of hell fire upon the man. "Second of all, even if it did mater right now, I out rank you! I'm a Captain Lieutenant, so if any one is going to can it it's going to be you!"

Frank turned pale. "I, I... I'm sorry, sir." He said reluctantly.

Will had calmed himself now. "And don't call me sir, we're not on duty. I hate formalities." As the Lieutenant turned away from him Will caught the look of something in his eye; resentment. He had made his first enemy before he had even landed on Pandora.

When they reached the space port he submitted his papers to the guard. They entered with out quarrel. _"So far so good, no hiccups." _Will thought to himself. The place smelt of spilt petrol, the air was dirty and there wasn't a good looking building to be seen; all prefabricated or cheap concrete atrocities. When they neared a Valkyrie shuttle Fill stopped the Jeep.

"End of the line boys. If all goes well for me; I'll get out of this half assed job and probably never see you again. If all goes well for you; you'll get back in one peace and be millionaires and probably never see me again. Either way thanks for the conversation." After they unloaded there kit Will and Davis said a quick goodbye to Fill and followed Frank to group of small buildings.

After submitting more paper work to some board looking bureaucrats he was given his rank insignias. He was then directed to some guys loading duffel bags and crates on to pallets, a utility AMP waiting to load them onto the shuttle. "Try to make sure they don't end up on the wrong flight." Will said to the guy who took his luggage. "It would be a real bugger on the other end." It got a few smirks.

After almost an eternity of waiting in a cramped, smelly room he was finally allowed to board the shuttle. Will was one of the last to walk up the ramp, at the top he paused and turned around. He looker out at the toxic city, he hated the fact that this would be his last view of Earth.

"Hay, bozo. Yeah you, get on and strapped in, we don't have all day." Called an annoyed looking flight attendant.

Will gave one last look and a thought sprung to mind. It was one of grate nostalgic importance to him; the last words of his grate grandfather and grandfather. Those words were: "So long and thanks for all the fish."

**A/N: **Sorry this chapter was so late but it's the end of this story ark. I'm going to go bake through all the chapters and try to improve them as best I can so if you have any suggestions to make or errors to point out pleas do so soon. The adventure will continue in another "story"; 'Highlander: Under Cover' (so keep an eye out).


	9. Hell in a Hand Basket

For those of you who haven't done the maths this part of my story takes place three years befor the film and one year befor the events of the game which I am considering cannon.

English speach - "normal"

thoughts - _"Italics"_

* * *

February 27th 2151

"Oh god, talk about the mother of all headaches... wait, where am I?" There was nothing but a strange grey plastic panel above him, to the sides were wires and a dim blue light. It was really cold but he was weightless. "Am I dead? Aren't coffins meant to be more comfortable? If I am dead I am so hunting whoever bought this shoddy workmanship." He chuckled to himself. After a short while he managed to fight back the pain of the head ache long enough to delve into his memories. "Man... I am one fucking crazy guy." Slowly the events leading up to his trip to Pandora came to mind.

The cryo pod opened to a large white and grey room with other pods opening, revealing their disoriented occupants. Will quickly made his way to the locker marked 'Jamie Evans' and emptied the standard issue RDA military garb along with a few personal effects and his rank insignias. With them he floated off to the queue for the changing rooms.

When he reached the shuttle a group of men went round ticking off people's names and giving them their registered weapons. His was a 'standard issue rifle'; a nifty mid-range weapon. Although simple by Will's standards at least it would be easy to maintain. He was also given a wasp revolver for until he got his own revolver back. The last two things were his duffel bag and an XO pack; it would filter the air so he could breath.

The ride down was smother than expected. He had actual come down on the second flight and so the bay was mostly filed with cargo. Even taking the lack of people into account the atmosphere still felt... wrong to him. Back in the Commonwealth the military always encouraged friendship among the troops, if you signed up with someone you would train with them, fight with them and if necessary die with them. Hear though it was only about the money. Of course he knew some people were out here to support their families or because they had no other better options but it didn't change things one bit.

There was the deceleration, the change in engine noise and then the signature jolt of a VETOL landing.

A man appeared from the cockpit end of the shuttle. "This is your XO pack, it is the single most important piece of equipment you have been given. You will now put it on and you will not take it off until you have entered the base. We've already had to clear one of you idiots off the runway from the last flight and we do not want to clear up another mess. Thank you for listening."

"_Wow! Talk about harsh."_ Will thought as he put his mask on. The ramp opened and he along with the others on the shuttle grabbed their bags and jogged down the ramp. Waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was a young woman with brown neck length hair and dark eyes. She looked like she had some Japanese blood in her as well.

"Welcome to Hell's Gate ladies and gentlemen, my names Kendra Midori and I will be in charge of your orientation of the facilities and operations of the RDA on Pandora. First of all we are not very formal around here so you can just call me Kendra, no Miss Midori nonsense. Now if you will all follow me..." She led them inside and began briefing them on the finer points of XO packs, vehicles, local wild life, particularly dangerous plants and the native Na'vi.

"Probably the most common danger you will encounter are the Viper Wolves. They are pack animals so if you see one more are bound to follow." The pictures weren't piety to say the least. Smooth black skin, six legs with opposing thumbs, for eyes, raiser sharp teeth and flaps of skin pulled back to exposed those teeth and the gums. "This is why no one goes anywhere without their squad mates. Next we have the banshee; an aerial predator but as long as you stay out of its territory you shouldn't have a problem with it, but fly boys will have to be careful of their nesting grounds."

When the orientation was finally over they were all given the rest of the day to settle into their quarters and explore the bases unrestricted areas. His personal crate was waiting for him in his room with a note attached telling him to retrieve his revolver and knife from the armoury. Before doing so he checked the names on the other two crates of the people he would be shearing the room with. One Mr Marcus Pelton from administration and Lieutenant Frank Burns.

"_Frank Burns... where have I heard that name before?" _And then it came to him. The really annoying guy he met on the ride to the space port back on Earth. "Freaking a, why do I have to shear a room with him?" Will said to no one in particular. Will decided it was just something he was going to have to deal with by his usual methods; making a mockery of it. _"Well, may by he will prove good entertainment." _

_He took the time to dig out the heir gel and spike up his now short heir in the wash room. _ He looked in to the mirror. _"I look nothing like myself any more. Probably a good thing now, undercover on a faraway planet surround by my corrupt rivals; brilliant." _Will's own sarcastic thoughts were of little comfort but it was better than nothing at all. He finally left to retrieve his side arm and knife.

The base was obviously not built with artistic intentions, it was functional but somehow not completely ugly. The exposed pipes and wires were interesting however the grey concrete was rather depressing. Fortunately the signs were friendly and he found his way to the armoury quickly. There was a thick door and a shuttered counter with a note stuck to it.

The note read; 'knock once and stand back'. Will decided to comply with the note, knocked and stood back. A split second later the shutter swung up violently and crashed against the sealing.

"Dam, missed him, here's you five bucks." The man behind the counter handed a five dollar note to another man sitting on a counter next to him who sniggered.

"Excuse me?" It was safe to say Will was confused. "Mind telling me what just happened?"

The guy manning the desk responded first. "I was betting the next guy to visit us, that's you, would be too dumb to read the note on the shutter and get hit by it. Sorry but there ain't much entertainment on base. Now, what can I do for ya?"

Cautiously stepping forewords and keeping an eye on the spring loaded shutter Will approached the man. "I came to pick up my weapons, a scoped revolver and a combat knife, Capitan Jamie Evans." Will passed him the slip of paper and he passed it to his friend who went to retrieve them.

Any how he eventually got his weapons back, almost getting his head hit by the shutter leaving. It worried him that entertainment was so scares people were betting on people getting a concussion. He wondered if they were even allowed outside when off duty, Kendra side stepped the question when he asked.

Will sighed as he walked back to his quarters. Hopefully he could meet his bunk mates before diner. Thwack. _"Dam it Will, pay more attention to your surroundings." _

The guy he slammed into was intimidatingly tall and shoved him. "Watch were you're going moron."

"Sorry." Was all Will could manage before the guy stormed off. After taking a few more paces he noticed something rubbing against his chest. There was a folded peace of card in his chest pocket. It was sealed by some sticky tape however the words 'open in privet' were scribbled on the out side. He looked over his shoulder for the man he bumped into, no sign of him. Will slid the note back into his pocket and continued on his way.

"...Oh shut up! I could have you busted back to privet if you like following regulations so tightly."

The shouting was coming from Will's quarters. _"Looks like Frank Burns has already pissed someone off." _There was a guy in a white shirt and blue tie on the bed in front of him fiddling with a glass dater pad. "Marcus Pelton I presume?"

"Oh, you again." Frank said sourly.

"Yeah. You're Capitan Evans right? Don't suppose you can get this guy to shut up can ya?" He was obviously in distress.

"Sure thing." Will didn't really like to watch anything suffer... unless they really deserved it. "Burns, leave the man alone. That's an order." He walked to his bunk, began unpacking and repacking his belongings into compartments and draws built into the wall around his bed.

"But, but sir! He has alcohol! He smuggled it in." He was practically wining now.

Will stopped. "Really? What kind of Alcohol?"

"Just a few bottles of vodka, not grate stuff but good for mixing. They are also registered but it was hardly worth it, I'm so low in the food chain... it would have been easier to build a distillery. It would cost me more than their paying me to bring anything better." He explained bitterly.

Will smiled and dug a bottle out of his crate. It was a bottle of Scottish whisky aged one hundred and forty years. "How about this? Dose this meat your expectations? And don't worry Burns it's registered to."

Marcus went wide eyed at the bottle, clearly stunned. "How did you get something like that in? Promise me you will savour every drop." You would have thought he was staring at the Holy Grail.

Burns snorted in disgust. "Drunkards like you two don't deserve your pay." He left in a huff, probably in hopes of an early diner.

Will gave a sigh of relief and continued to explain. "Filthy rich parents who give me a decent allowance. That and my government pays bonuses for successful 'special' operations."

"If the pay was so good back home why come out here?" Marcus asked.

He thought about it for a moment. "Frankly, wanted to get out, see the galaxy a little more than others have. See a real forest, not just pictures." He had in fact already seen real forests and defended them. "I also might have a thing for ten foot tall girls with tails and blue skin."

Marcus went to full alert at that last bit. "What?"

Will sat down on his bed laughing. "Relax man, I'm only joking." However he did think about it seriously for a moment. _"I have always had a flare for the exotic and appearance never bothered me much. Yeah, if true love hits me here I won't turn it down."_

He gave Will an incestuous look. "Well if you are interested I heard one of their tribes to the west of here was friendly. What was it the... owe-meat clan or something? Aw heck, the locals aren't even my department."

He gave a light chuckle and paused for a few seconds. "Well, it's going to be diner time soon so we had better get a move on."

Marcus was beginning to look tired. "Yeah." Sounded it to. He got up and began to leave.

Will unlocked one of the compartments around his bed and slid his bottle in. He dawdled so Marcus would be gone before he finished. When he was sure he was alone he went to the bath room, locked the door and sat down on the closed toilet seat. He withdrew his pen knife and the note he picked up earlier and cut the tape holding it closed.

It read; 'Greed and destruction go hand in hand. Come to storage room 7 in the basement at 23:00 hours. Come alone, do not tell anyone, make sure you are not followed and avoid the cameras especial the ones in the elevators so use the stairs. Love you know who.'

* * *

**A/N: **For those of you who don't know the story line of the Avatar game you can easily fined it on the avatar wiki. Once again any sujestions are welcom. Pleas coment I will try to respond.


	10. An Englishman and His Breakfast

Sory if it took a while to update but it is my longest chapter yet. Enjoy!

"Normal" - english speach

_"Italics" _- thoughts

* * *

February 27th 2151

Will was leaning against the wall in the mostly empty storage room. It was eleven thirty and nobody had turned up yet.

His evening had not been too comfortable. For diner he had sat down with some troops hoping for a similar intelligent conversation to the British troops he had talked to back home. What a mistake; he had to endure some rather disgusting stories and few understood his humour, British wit was like that. Tomorrow he would sit somewhere else.

The handle on the door began to move and Will silently ducked behind a crate and drew his revolver. He heard little but Will could tell someone had entered the room.

"Greed and destruction go hand in hand. We know your hear." Came a very sturdy voice.

Will smiled. "And thus without them we move forward until dawn." It was the Commonwealth's motto and frequently used as an all clear or simple friend or foe test. He holstered his gun and stepped out from behind the crate.

"My name is Zachariah Felps, but in public you will call me Ian Brown. I already know who you are Mr Highlander." The man was taller than usual with short but slightly messy brown hair and blue eyes. He had a sturdy build but was not ridiculously over muscled like some of the troops on base.

"It's Doctor Highlander if you insist on using that name. So, how is this going to work then?"

Zachariah smirked. "Your independent, this beefing is mostly a formality. My team has no jurisdiction over you however we do have a few things to help you get started if you chose to accept them."

Will smiled. "Had no idea you would be so accommodating. Let's hear it."

"OK. For starters we've set up a trojan in the bases mainframe. It will give you access to all systems and all but the highest level of clearance; we're still working on that one. Unfortunately there's a catch; use it to access anything really sensitive or frequently used and there is a greater chance of its discovery." He handed will a data chip and he slid it into his wrist computer.

Will looked over the software. Computers were not his strong point but the interface was simple enough for him. "Sweet. What else?"

"Well your equipment along with ours and a compact superluminal communicator is being stored in warehouse fourteen. It's long term storage so hardly anyone goes in there. We've been tampering with the manifest as well so people don't know about certain useful items stored there such as six cruise missiles that have been sitting there for five years." They both chuckled but his good humour soon dropped. "However, the communicator has been sending incriminating evidence about the RDA back to the Commonwealth non-stop. The working conditions here are appalling, they say every miner goes back to Earth rich but they end up spending it all on booze or shrinks. The resident cytologist is very well paid and very pro RDA."

Will stared him in the eye. "Well, that's why we're here, to sop the sons of a bitches running the RDA from ruining humanity, its people and our pride in it any more than they already have."

Zack gave a sour smile. "I suppose your right. There are a few other things you should know about before you get started. First of all we've been prohibited from deliberately derailing human relations with the Na'vi." Will was about to protest but Zack spoke out first. "Now I know what you're thinking, it's the easiest way to disrupt the operations here. However I did say 'human relations' not RDA. If there's going to be an uprising we want humans fighting alongside the Na'vi. But preferably not with sticks and stones." He added hastily.

He thought about it for a minute. "Well, I sincerely hope it does come to something like that." Will had a lot of spite for the RDA built up inside.

"So do I at times but these are still people on this base, no matter their employer. Most of them have little other choice; you simply chose a bad seat tonight at the dining table. On that subject you would do best to avoid the 'testosterone brigade'; their lap dogs of Major Quaritch. The basted is not to be trifled with; he exposed my predecessor just before he was due to leave this rock. Tortured him for information. Didn't get any though. A large group of marines are fiercely loyal to him but fortunately there type is easy to spot." He said distastefully.

Will was a little shocked; none of the Commonwealth's spies had been discovered for decades. "Shit. Thanks for the warning. I also remember a Falco, anything on him?"

Zack snorted. "Without a doubt the worst human I've ever met. Very pro RDA, might makes right sort of person and doesn't like the Na'vi. Thinks their standing in the way of human progress. Likes pulling strings and manipulating people from afar even if he lacks the people touch. He's the second in command so I really hope Conrad Olson lasts the next four years for his replacement to arrive. Conrad is not a bad man but he did have a nasty brush with an individual Na'vi who's killed a lot of his men. Revenge or something, I never got the whole story. Then there's Grace Augustine."

"The Grace Augustine? I didn't think she was the company type." Will remembered a few of her recordings that had been sent back to Earth. The RDA editors were good but the BBC was better, making a front line stories of the edited footage and recordings.

Zack chuckled and looked at him as if he knew what Will was thinking. "She ain't. Even saved my ass once without knowing it, started bitching to an administrator about something and diverted his attentions from what I was doing. The problem is if you spend too much time around her you'll be black balled by Falco and Quaritch. The scientists practically worship her and she's as close to on our side gets without knowing about us so no worries there but a few of her underlings are of different opinion, watch out for them. That's all I think you need to know about thing around here. Anything more specific and your trojan can tell you what you want to know."

"Well, thanks for the info. I'll see you around, but probably not if you don't want me to." Will joked.

Zack remembered something just as he was about to leave. "William, there is one more thing you do need to know. Are you aware you're not the only Highlander on Pandora?" He asked nervously.

"No, I wasn't. Who is it?" This surprised him, hadn't heard any of the family had gone into the spy busyness.

"She seriously never told you...? Your falling out must have been worse than I thought." Zack muttered to himself.

The fact Will was getting tiered may have had something to do with it but he was getting increasingly agitated. "Who? What are you babbling about? I haven't had any recent falling outs with any family members."

"It's your sister. Eleanor Highlander." Zack said rather plainly.

He was shocked to say the least. "Eleanor? She's here?"

"Yeah, sabotaging the RDA's science initiative. Sending as much of the useful information from it back to England as well. Uses the name Sofia Saxson." He explained.

Will sighed. "Typical her. Overreacting and running off. I thought she was in Africa or something, maybe even America but never this far away."

"Well now you know. See you around, probably won't see each other for a while."

"Yeah, bye." And with Will's understated farewell Zack turned and left.

February 28th 2151

The next morning he had difficulty waking up so his room mates had already left. Will made his way to the mess hall and retrieved a decent breakfast of Tapirus bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns and cooked tomatoes. He stopped to scope out a decent place to sit. _"Miners; too dumb. Fellow spies; don't want to blow cover. Soldiers; too interested in killing and fucking. Technicians; too many boring details. Scientists; snobby but… given my other options looks like they will have to do." _

Will proceeded to an empty pair of chairs at the end of the table. He got a few cautious and venomous glances from the other occupants of the table. _"The soldiers __and the scientists must not be on good terms. Never the less I am determined to enjoy this meal… however disgusting it looks." _The alien bacon and hash browns weren't bad but the rest was pretty pathetic; the egg was probably powdered and the tomato had a faint taste of chemicals.

"Excuse me, you're sitting in my usual seat." A rough female voice called from just behind him. He turned to see a woman of about forty five with a stern face and fiery red hair. Doctor Grace Augustine.

Will shrugged. "First come first serve from what I heard." He had seen the Commonwealth's file on her; 'Possibly the best xenobotanist in human history with an attitude in proportion to her renowned'. "There's a perfectly good seat opposite me if you're not too skittish of us soldiers."

"Do you know who I am? Any idea of who you're dealing with? You're obviously new here." She said rather snidely.

"Your possibly the best xenobotanist in human history with an attitude in proportion to your renowned, or at least that's what my government says and so far I agree. Unfortunately for you however nothing gets between an Englishman and his breakfast." Will smirked to himself. "Personally I'm more of a physics man myself but I'm sure I know enough to strike up interesting conversation, if you don't mind joining me that is." He answered sincerely.

Grace tried to suppress a grin but failed and sat down opposite him. "You know I don't think anyone else has given me a more accurate description of myself in a long time. You've got guts." Her sudden friendliness surprised many of the other scientists on the table. "All hero worship and that from them, no matter how I act to get them off my back. So, what do you know?"

Will shrugged again. "Not much; read your book and saw the news reels. Like to see the original copy though, bet the RDA stopped you from putting a few things in there. But like I said, biology is not my best subject." He answered as honestly as he could.

"_Wow, a smart 'jar head'. Maybe I can get him as my escort." _She thought to herself a little sarcastically. "Tell me, what do you think of the Na'vi?"

Will thought for a moment and decided to give his honest but under formed opinion. "Well, my first thought is technologically primitive but not necessarily stupid. Your book makes it sound like their fun people to hang around with however I am a little nervous about meeting one, their ten foot tall and unlike you I don't have an Avatar. I think I will have to meat one to form a better understanding but I have heard about an incident with Conrad Olson flying off the handle about one of them killing a lot of men. You know what happened?" He was being bold now.

Grace bit her lip trying to decide whether or not to trust him.

Will apologised before she could decide. "Oh, sorry, probably a sensitive topic. I haven't even told you my name yet; Capitan Jaime Evans ex-SAS combat engineer." He said with a little humour.

"Dr Grace Augustine xenobotanist and head of the Avatar Program. You probably knew that already though."

"Yeah, more or less." Will took a couple more bites of his breakfast. "The news reports make you seem quite the pioneer and diplomat. Using you as a poster girl right?"

She snorted. "I know, Kristina the base's resident reporter isn't that bad but she paints a bad picture of what the editors back home do to her work." _"He doesn't sound too bad for a soldier I think I can trust him but Parker will never give me a Capitan for an escort, at least not a good one." _

The lull in their conversation let Will's ear catch something interesting, two others were talking about something. "nah, I tried that it just blew the fuse. I don't get it, the electron microscope attracts dust like nobody's business."

"I could take a look at it for you." Will butted in as politely as he could.

The guy looked at him snidely. "I think we can handle a little technical glitch solder boy."

His colleague decided to speak out against the other guys hostility. "Hay, you know how the techs are; they don't get around to us unless it's real important. Selfridge considers us low priority he could get it fixed quickly."

"You should deicide quickly as I'm only around for this morning. I'll even give you a seventy five present discount making my services free but act fast this is a limited time offer only." Will said with a grin.

"How the hell do I know you'll know what you're doing?" The first guy asked again.

"All you have to do is look up my file, I am a combat engineer. In Britain that means you would easily be trusted with a hadron collider."

Grace smirked. "I think we can trust this guy with a microscope, if not much else."

The two looked nervously at each other before accepting his help. _"Obviously Grace caries a lot of swing around here, well, at least with the scientists." _Will thought. "Excellent. I haven't had the chance to see the labs yet. Just let me finish breakfast and I'll see what I can do." The two colleagues left shortly after that.

Grace turned his attention back to him. "You know, I bet you don't even know where the lab is." It wasn't really a question.

Will let himself slip a slightly embarrassed look. "Uh, no. Not really."

Grace laughed a little. "Come on, I'll show you. I'm heading that way anyway." They disposed of their trays and continued. Grace didn't trust him yet but had a feeling it could come to that. "You're not the typical soldier are you? I assume the SAS is some kind of Special Forces right?"

"That's right. The Special Air Service, surprised so few around here have herd of it. It was the first Special Forces ever formed but your subject isn't really history is it." He mused as they walked down the corridor.

"Nether is anything military but they seem insistent on meddling in my affairs. Always trying to hijack my projects and tern them into weapons. To make it worse occasionally some marine goes cowboy and starts plundering for personal profit. It doesn't help my negotiating stand point with the Na'vi." She decided to go out on a limb and tell him what happened with Conrad. With his rank and curiosity she had little doubt he would fined out eventually any way. "You wanted to know about the killings yes? The one Na'vi warrior who took out a dam, a factory and close to a battalion of solders."

"I only knew he killed a lot of people, an impressive line up for one guy." Will said sourly. "You appear to have caught my interest."

Grace stopped and turned to look him in the eye. _"Their is something familiar about him but I don't know what." _She continued to walk at a slower pace. "Very well, I will indulge your curiosity. About two years ago a rather messed up lieutenant by the name of Sean Wallen raided a Na'vi tribe called the Anurai clan. He massacred the population and stole their belongings to sell on the black market. The attack wasn't sanctioned but nobody questioned it at the time."

This was quite rattling for Will. "Bastard. I can see where this is going, I'd be pity pissed to if someone killed everyone I ever knew and then had the arrogance to loot my home."

She snorted. "Tell me about it. Around a year later a pair of Na'vi warriors resurfaced and attacked locations where the artefacts were being stored and Sean had been recently. It is believed they were brother and sister and the only survivors of the attack a year prior. They later helped another clan, the Li'ona, by destroying an RDA dam that was causing a drought in their area."

"I knew the RDA was filtering the released news but this is... this is something else entirely."

Grace gave a bitter smile. "And the current administrator Parker Selfridge wonders why I am having little success negotiating with them. The destruction of the dam drew the attention of Olson Conrad who ordered Sean to return the artefacts to the village they were taken from. Unfortunately the pair had already moved on to destroying a factory. For some reason, I don't know what, they returned to the ruined village. Sean defied Conrad's orders and had prepared an ambush for them. It back fired and Sean was killed. This was the final straw for Conrad who led another raid against the village of the Li'ona clan using his Avatar in some bid for revenge. His Avatar was killed and he entered a cycle of depression."

"Wow, and he lasted a year after that? His replacement isn't turning up for another four." Will thought about it. _"Conrad could be a problem, if he goes psycho and worse if he dies or becomes ill those Falco and Quaritch characters get to run the show." _

Grace suppressed a twitch. _"He is not supposed to know about Conrads replacement and most certainly not when. Even I didn't know that!" _

Will noticed a sign giving directions to the science block. "Um, grace; aren't those the labs off to the left?" To Will she seemed to have spaced out for a second and walked past.

Grace frowned and blushed at her mistake. "So it is."

As they entered the labs they got quite a few surprised looks a few of which turned to scowls and even rearer smiles from people Will didn't think he would trust considering his agenda. _"They probably think because I'm a soldier I'm pro RDA. Oh how wrong can they be?" _

"Here we are, examination room four." Grace turned left sharply to room with the same two colleagues he met earlier bickering over something. "Play times over you two. Your saviour has arrived." She said sarcastically, gesturing towards Will.

"Hi there again." He extended a hand. "Name's Jamie Evans."

Grace gave a reassuring nod to the pair.

"Alan Coll." The friendlier of the two said as he shook his hand.

"Mathew Nickels." The other said shaking his hand with less enthusiasm.

Grace smiled reassuringly at the three. "Good... Now get to work, when I get back I'll have samples for that thing." She turned and left.

Will looked towards her as she left but soon turned back. "Right, so what seems to be the problem."

Alan went first. "Well, if you hadn't noticed the electron microscope here is the dustiest thing in this room probably the entire lab. It's blocking the lens and contaminating samples. A real pain in the ass."

"Got any tools I can use?" Will asked.

"We have a general purpose tool kit we keep around. I'll go fetch it." Mathew said and left to retrieve it.

Will decided not to waist time and started examining the microscope.

Grace was preparing to link up with her Avatar when her ever faithful assistant Max Patel confronted her. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this time?"

He was acting nervously. "Quite a few people, including my self to be honest were wondering who your new friend was?"

"Capitan Jamie Evans combat engineer, special forces and a Brit. Said he could fix that microscope, you know; the one that ruined a dozen of my samples." She answered as she continued making her way to the link pods.

He frowned at her. "You know how the people around hear think of the mercs; they hate them! What if Falco or Quaritch sent him hear to get under our skin and spy on us?"

"What the hell would they gain by that?" She began calibrating her usual pod.

"You know Falco, he wants to turn the planet against the Na'vi using the Eywa network. Quaritch wants to bomb them into submission, make slaves or something out of them the sick bastard." Max ranted.

Grace sighed as she began climbing in to her link pod. "The Eywa network is only a theory and most lightly a myth. As for Quaritch he won't be in charge for a while, he's not a concern."

"Doctor Monroe thinks otherwise."

Grace looked him dead in the eye. "Max, I know I'm taking a risk here but this guy only got here yesterday for crying out loud. He's also a Brit and you know what their type think of the RDA once they see what's going on here. I got a good feeling we can trust this guy and we can most defiantly use him on our side. Spread the word to try and act friendly towards this guy."

Max sighed in submission. "Fine, if not for your gut instincts on people the negotiations would not be going so well."

Grace puled the lid of the pod closed. _"I hope I'm right about this guy, I really do." _

_

* * *

_**A/N:** I hope I'm doing well but I havn't had much feed back or any sugestions. I was hoping to show a lighter, less biter side to Grace in this chapter, before the slaghter at the school house. _  
_


	11. Log One and Flush

[Date: February 28th 2151]

[Time: 20:22 Pandora Time]

[Subject: Capitan Jamie Evans]

[Video Log: 1]

[Begin Recording]

"Well, this is my first video log. Still feeling the after effects of the trip from Earth to Pandora, some kinda jet lag, or is it space lag, cryo lag?" He shook his head. "My name is Jamie Evans, Capitan in the security forces on Pandora; Hell's Gate. Anyway, I've been hear for just one night and things around here already look like shit. The two majors in the merc security force here look like psychos and I'm not in much of a position to do much about it." He snorted. "Hope these logs stay privet, well, for now at least. On the up side I got to meet the Dr Grace Augustine, lot snippier then the news reels let on. She was the one who persuaded me to do these logs, said it would help keep me sane. I don't think she would be so concerned for a merc usually so I think she likes me to make an exception. Requisitioned this video camera that 'fell off the back of a truck'." Will sniggered.

"Had breakfast and lunch with her and fixed some electron microscope in the science block. I told the guys supervising that it had a design flaw, that whoever made it forgot to ground the frame and casing resulting in a large amount of static electricity attracting dust to the thing and screwing up the results. That's what I told them. The ground wire had been deliberately cut, it was to clean to have been an accident. Whoever did it knows their way around a laboratory, maybe it was... well I wouldn't know."

"Tomorrow I'm heading out to 'the park'; big fenced in area. They say it's the safest way to see the planet but how the hell are you supposed to see the planet from inside a fence? I mean, I know it's dangerous so their probably afraid of getting sued and rightly so, but it kinda takes the fun out of it. Well... that's all I think I have to say at this point so, yeah. Until next time." The camera begins to move violently an glimpses several things strewn across the floor. "'So until next time' my god that was so corny. Wait a second, this thing ain't off yet! Howd'ya..."

[End Recording]

[Time: 20:31]

* * *

**A/N: **I know this chapters short (shortest yet) but I needed some way to slip in the cut ground wire. Just in case you don't know a ground wire caries away extra charge so your electronics don't fry, in powerful electrical devices you usually ground as much of the device as you can to avoid electrifying people and more sensitive parts. Pleas comment, good or bad I don't mined I just want to know if anybody's reading this because I know my summery sucks.


	12. A Walk in the Park

"Normal" - English speech

"_Italics"_ - thoughts

* * *

February 28th 2151

Flying didn't feel right, no wind washing across his face and his hair; not there for the wind to swim through. _"At least the scenery is stunning." _ Will thought to himself as he flew over the expansive rainforest, his legs dangling over the edge of the Samson. He had been lucky enough to see what was left of the Amazon rain forest as a kid before it was declared a no access zone be the UN, at least they could still do some good. This was entirely different though, the forest stretched on for as far as the eye could see. _"There's nothing like this on Earth any more." _A small flock of purple bird like things with two sets of wings flew by close to the canopy. _"Nothing like this has EVER existed on Earth, not beyond the Jurassic age anyway." _It was mined blowing. Shame it was ruined by the ugly exo-pack stuck to his face. At least he could still wear his blue tinted sun glasses underneath it.

They set down on small concrete landing pad inside an encampment. The compound was filed with crates, the mobile housing modules or 'shacks', large mobile equipment and inactive vehicles. As he stepped out of the Samson he saw Kendra Madori and a unknown black Lieutenant waiting for them.

"Hi again and welcome to Blue Lagoon or as most people call it 'the park'. Lieutenant Winslow will be teaching you about the equipment you will be using, some of the dangers you will be facing out in the field, some basic survival skills to help you survive on Pandora, what you can and can't eat, how to fined shelter, etcetera etcetera. I have some work to be getting on with so I will leave you in his capable hands."

The dark skinned man stepped forward while Kendra left to attend to whatever she needed to do. "Right then, like the lady said I'm Winslow and I'll be tellin you about how't survive out here."

Will's ears perked up at hearing his accent; it was distinctly British. _"From Birmingham if I'm not mistaken." _

"If you will follow me then..." He went on to show them various bits of equipment they used out in the field including the Ammunition Dispenser Pod. "Now these little things are a real life saver out here. We usually set up a small network of them in our operations zones to keep everyone in supply."

Will discreetly looked up the A-pod on his wrist computer as he yaterred on about some irrelevant technical details. _"Intriguing, there networked making them very susceptible to computer warfare; perhaps a virus." _

Winslow began to show them the large but, to Will anyway, unimpressive vehicles. _"The Buggy; too hard to manurer in dense jungle, fragile, no weapons and almost no cargo capacity. The Swan; large, decent as a bushwacker, very exposed gunner position and once again almost no space for cargo. ATV Grinder; best so far but the weapons are limited to what's in front of it." _

They came to a group of human shaped thing that looked like someone had cut a car in half and gave it arms and legs. There was a large thirty millimetre canon fashioned like a rifle sitting next to it. _"Ah the AMP suit; my rivals best selling product. Ugly, vulnerable and too easy to trip up. Otherwise not too bad at jungle fighting and can pack one hell of a punch. Note to self: watch out for." _

"This ladies and gentlemen is your best friend hear on Pandora. The Mark six P type Amplified Mobility Platform or AMP suit has been fitted with with air filters and all sorts of other stuff to make it function better out here in the jungle. Some of you have already had training in their use and everyone who hasn't is recommended to make use of the free training secessions available in off hours." He continued onwards showing them the shacks, air tight tents and other lodging. Will began to notice how scripted it all sounded, like pre flight safety checks.

The day dragged on and every one was assigned to patrolling a part of blue lagoon with an experienced colleague. Will sent to a foreword camp and assigned to a some what glittery corporal Ollie Thomson. They were to patrol the East fence using a gator patrol boat.

The boat was tiny so only three or so people could fit in one, it was just him, Ollie and a pair of large orange cylinders. As Will was unfamiliar with the controls or the Gator Ollie was driving and pointing out things as they passed. "That there is a puff ball tree. Try not to shoot the big red round things on top, they have a tendency to explode. One guy I knew was close to one when some trigger happy moron decided to shoot one for a joke. The seeds acted like shrapnel at close range, the administrators weren't to happy and took the cost of the reprimands and medical care out of the other guys pay."

"Thanks for the warning." Will said.

"No prob, that's what I'm here for."

Will saw something move out the corner of his eye. It was a strange dear like animal and when it looked at them a large frill sprung out from behind its neck. It bleated and bolted out of sight. "Hay, that was a hexapede right?"

"Oh yeah, don't worry about them, their harmless and scatter at the first sign of movement." Ollie explained.

Unknown to Will and Ollie they were being watched. High in the branches of the trees overhanging the spider web of large streams. Tan Jala watched from his vantage point as the metal floating fish crawled along the river, purring as it went. Him self, his friend Bayda'amo and Bayda'amo's mate Marali were searching for a sky person that allegedly could be trusted according to Dr Harper. The man was supposed to have some authority over the sky peoples warriors and René Harper suggested they befriend him should the chance present its self. And now this man was travelling below him, the one with the spiky yellow hair and blue eyes. He was surprised at how his eyes stood out; large blue and shiny but he suspected he was wearing eye things he had seen some sky people wear.

"_This is not the time to make contact. Best to fined Bayda'amo and wait until he is alone so his friend dose not interfere. He will not have gone far by the time I return." _So he left to friends Bayda'amo and Marali.

After a few minutes they had reached the far end of the network of water ways and turned around to follow the east fence back to the foreword camp. It wasn't a solid fence, but rather a natural barrier with the gaps filled in by tough fencing.

As they came to a section with a lot of dense foliage Will just about spotted a roughly man sized hole in it. "Hay hold up a sec, there's a breach in the fence. Aren't we meant to report that or something?"

"Yeah I see it." He parked the bout on the shore line banking it just enough so they wouldn't drift off but wouldn't be impossible to move. "I'll set up the repulser while you keep an eye on the fence."

"The what?" Will asked as he jumped out of the bout.

Ollie grabbed one of the two large orange cylinders that had been lying in the bout. "Sonic Repulsers, we set them up near a breach in the fence. It makes some kind of noise like a dog whistle; the animals around hear hate it and tend to stay away. Once a week someone comes around and fixes any breaches. Now if you would kindly keep an eye on the fence, Viper Wolves bring back bad memories. Their also the main problem out here, V-wolf bites are common injuries."

"Okay." He gave a hand getting the repulser out and then went to the hole in the fence. Looking through the gap Will noticed a few meters from the fence was a cliff edge. _"Strange, why would thy fence off a natural barrier?" Surly no creature could climb up a shear drop." _Curiosity ever strong Will decided to investigate against his better judgement. _"After all, better judgement never got me anything interesting before."_ The view was rather amazing, in the distance he could even see some of the legendary stone arches and floating mountains unique to Pandora. "Shit, I thought they where a myth, the miracle of a room temperature super conductor." He muttered to himself. Looking down he saw the cliff wasn't all that steep, an Earth goat could get up it no problem.

Ollie was almost done setting up the repulser. _"Why the heck do these things need a hundred and one different settings?" _The top of the repulser popped up, started spinning and whirring. "Well that's that sorted. Hay! Jamie! The things set up... What the heck are you doing out side the fence!"

"Just checking out the view. Something wrong with that?" Will called back.

Ollie looked almost terrified. "There's a reason the fence is there, the forest canopy stops Banshees from making snacks out of us, beyond the fence there is no canopy!"

Then, as if fate desired to exercise his sense of humour there was an almighty screech. He looked up to his left to see a diving Banshee. _"Fucking Murphy's law." _He rolled out of the way, towards the cliff edge, before it crashed into the ground where he had once been. Machine gun fire rattled off from the other side of the monstrous bird thing but it only hit it's wings making it madder.

It made another pass for his head but Will jumped out of the way. Unfortunately his efforts were rewarded by a cracking noise and the ground shifting slightly beneath his feet. Will glanced back to see he was standing on a fragile over hang. "Grate, just fucking grate." Thinking fast he decided to do something he did best; something crazy. He jumped down as hard as he could on the cracked stone casing it to brake and him to fall away from the lunging banshees jaws.

* * *

**A/N: **Cliff hanger! Almost literally in this case. Since this is long before the school massacre and the Tipani war I thought the Na'vi should be less hostile but still weary of humans through Dr Harpers in-site. I don't think the security force would be hostile ether otherwise they wouldn't have set up a camp in 'blue lagoon' so close to a small Na'vi village.


	13. A Walk in the Forest

"Normal" - English speech

"_Italics" _- Thoughts

"_**Bold Italics"**_ - Na'vi speech

* * *

February 28th 2151

Will held on to the plate of rock for dear life as it slid down the shallow cliff edge, crashing against outcroppings of rock. He tried to maintain some control over the improvised toboggan but it was a rough ride. Fortunately it would also be a short ride judging by the fast approaching ground but stopping would be a problem. He tried to think but once again fate proved to have a sense of humour as a particularly large outcropping resulted in him flying outwards towards the forest canopy. _"Okay Will, just remember your sky diving lessons and you'll be fine... ish." _He spread out his arms and legs and prayed to god that the canopy would slow his decent. _"Waite, why am I praying? I'm an atheist for crying out loud!" _

Passing through the canopy was painful to say the least. Amongst the chaos and pain he did his best to grab on to as many vines and other miscellaneous objects as he descended. Will eventually found himself hanging of a stray vine about seven feet off the ground. "That went... better than expected." There was a slight creaking, and the vine snapped letting him fall the rest of the way.

Trying to maintain some dignity he got up and brushed himself off, checking himself for injuries and his equipment for damage. There were a few nasty cuts, large bruises and he felt like shit but nothing life threatening. He sighed with relief that his exo-pack hadn't been damaged, rifle wasn't too bad ether.

"Defiantly one for the autobiography, if this all isn't classified by MI6 and if the readers will even believe it." William usually resorted to talking to himself in times of stress. Upon further inspection of his gear however, he noticed his radio had been crushed on the way down. Will sighed as he peered into the smashed electronics mixed with the shattered plastic casing. Not one chance, even stray hope, of salvaging it. He decided to follow the cliff face south, away from the camp but where he remembered less hazards climbs to be.

Tan Jala was fortunate enough to arrive in time to witness the human fall so he could track him. They also managed to stop the ikran from devouring the other human but not before it he lost consensus. Marali; always a kind spirit offered to take the wounded human back to their village through the Avatar camp. Himself and Bayda'amo did their best to trace the human they desired to meet and had tracked him to this point.

"_**It would appear he is mad."**_ Bayda'amo said quietly.

"_**Indeed, he will not stop talking to himself or the forest around him, or prehaps this one is more in-touch with Eywa then the rest of his kind."**_ Tan Jala joked.

His friend chuckled. _**"I doubt it, he talks of strange things and uses many words I have not heard before, but you have always seen things in these sky people that I have not."**_

Tan Jala bought his attention back to the mater at hand. The human was wondering away from the metal village, possibly looking for the slopes leading back up to the place the humans call blue lagoon. Unfortunately this path would also take him through thick Nantang territory. _**"Do you think we should approach him and warn him?" **_

Bayda'amo responded swiftly. _**"No. Human warriors are easily startled, I do not wish to end up on the receiving end of one of their weapons. We should wait until he sleeps, bind him and wait for him to wake." **_

Tan'Jala remembered the weapons and how they shot thundering arrow heads faster then the eye could see. _**"I do not like the idea of binding him but if what you say is true, then it would seem we have few other options." **_And so they continued to stalk the human.

Will continued to make his way through the dense jungle, careful not to step on twigs, piles of leaves and anything else that looked like it would make a noise. _"Looks like all those wide games at scouts came in handy after-all." _ He remembered those days well, hunting for and hiding from his friends in almost a square kilometre of woodland or the many sizeable parks.

The further he went the more convinced he was that someone was following him. There wasn't much evidence; the occasional rustle of leaves, the creaking of pressure being but on a branch and the two roughly human shaped thermal signatures on his scope. Never the less they made no hostile moves so Will decided not to open fire. "Note to self: try not to piss off local sapient life-forms and Miss Augustine at the same time." Grace had ranted on for a short time about how the administrator Parker Selfridge had ignored all the Natives requests and still expected her to magically get them to cooperate with the company.

Minuets had passed and Will was still discreetly looking at his two admirers, occasionally dropping hints that he knew they were there. "God dam it , I'm soooo board. I wish someone would come and keep me company, even if he was a ten foot tall smerth." _"Nope, still too shy I see." _ He continued.

However his wanderings would soon be interrupted by a series of barks and yelps. As he feared he might have done out here, he stumbled into a group of native predators. Will ran for the nearest clearing he could fined; he would have a better chance out in the open. When he reached the centre of the clearing he spun around to face his antagonists. Six large dog like creatures with smooth black skin; viper wolves. They moved quite elegantly on their six legs but looked dam ugly with the skin around their upper jaw puled back to expose needle sharp teeth and pink gums.

The only thing stopping Will from shooting was their name; wolves. The grey wolves of England had cloned back into existence since their extinction two and a halve centuries ago. They were as close to sacred as something could get in the mostly agnostic country. A symbol of hope that even now they still had a chance to revive their world.

But back to the mater at hand. Five of the creatures had advanced on the ground towards him while the last was circling around on the tree branches, trying to sneak around behind him. Will waited for it to reach the mid way point of a long branch a let off a trio of bursts from his rifle casing the branch to collapse. The viper wolf ran off into the forest wining. He let off three more bursts each just in front of the leading wolves. One more decided it wasn't worth it an bolted.

The lead wolf jumped him, the butt of Will's rifle swinging down and back up to meet the underside of the creatures jaw. He ducked and rolled to avoid another one. Remembering a curtain peace of equipment he had requisitioned he garbed the cylinder from his waist, puled the pin and deposited it on the ground next to him. It began excreting a vast amount of smoke creating a screen of protection. Will retreated out the other side of it, annoyed and confused cackles coming from the smoke cloud.

Unfortunately one had spotted him and Will began to run into the forest. The creatures yelps attracting the rest of them. He let off a few more shots in the general direction of the creatures emptying the clip. As he reloaded however he tripped on a branch falling flat on his face. He rolled over a drew his side arm just in time to send a bullet flying through the chest of one of the leaping viper wolves.

Anther one landed on top of him scratching his leg and knocking his revolver aside with its wiled clawing, his bullet proof vest protecting his body. He wrestle with the creature for a few moments more before the creature flew off of him. He looked around to try and see what had happened. He didn't like what he but worked out that it belonged to one of the two who were following him. Quickly rolled over and retrieved his weapon, catching site of another beating back a viper wolf with his bow.

His paranoid instinct kicked in and he jumped to his feat taking several steps back as the two continued to beat back the wolves. The wolves scattered not wanting to try and take on three opponents. The two figures turned around to see Will slowly moving his scoped revolver back and forth between the two. As he did he scand the two up and down.

The first one was wearing what appeared to be the hide of a viper wolf, stretched over his back and it's head over his like a grotesque baseball cap. He had hair tied into braids hanging out from underneath it. For a moment he almost chuckled remembering the novelty hats you could buy at Disney land. More similar black material was acting as a loin cloth but a little extra material around the behind covering his bum.

The other guy had a stronger build and wearing a similar loin cloth but actually made out of cloth. He however wore little else besides an necklace and a belt coming over his left shoulder, holding a knife that was, to Will, the size of a short sward. His body and face were covered patterns of white paint giving his face the apearence of a skull. There was a scar over his completely white right eye, Will assumed this meant he was blinded in that eye.

Both of them were staring at him now, not in anger or hate but cautious curiosity. _"I wander if they even know how deadly this weapon is."_ As they kept their bows by their sides will decided to slowly lower the weapon and slide it back down to his side and into his holster. As they continued to stare at him Will decided to retrieve the clip he had dropped and load it back into the rifle. He continued over to the viper wolf he had killed, still nervous about the two ten foot blue people watching him. "Shame." He said to himself quietly. The creature wasn't so ugly now it was dead and the flaps of skin had relaxed and slid back over its mouth.

Will got up and turned to face the two strangers. He decided to have some fun. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" He asked. Will chuckled at there confusion.

The one wearing the viper wolf hide spoke up first. "I, apologise, we do not know those words." His English was heavily accented but not as broken as Will would have thought.

The way he looked reminded Will of the others in his German class when they where hoping they had said the right thing. "No need to apologise, I didn't think you would know those words. The name's Jamie Evans, and I assume you two are the same two who have been following me for the last hour."

The paint guy smiled and gave a deep laugh. "So, not all Tawtute are death and moron. My name is Bayda'amo." His voice was deeper.

"And mine is Tan Jala."

Will frowned at the unusual word. "What did you call me?" He tried not to sound hostile.

Bayda'amo looked confused. "Have I not spoken correct? I tried to say you are NOT death or moron."

"No no no, before that, the other word you used."

"Tawtute?"

Will nodded his head repeatedly. "Yeah, that. What dose it mean?"

"In your tong? Sky person."

He gave a strange look, a cross between frown and a smile. "That is... rather inaccurate."

Tan Jala spoke up. "You come from the sky, you fly in machines a lot. How is it wrong?"

He tried his best to explain. "It, I, we... do not come from the sky, we come from above it. Across space... a grate void, eternal night and below another sky, another world."

"Ah, toktor Rena Harper spoke of this briefly; your dead world." Tan Jala said.

Will frowned. "No, not dead, not really. Wounded, infected maybe but not dead, far from incurable." The image of roof top gardens favoured in London flashed in his mined. A distant howl broke his train of thought however. "Um, if you don't mind I would like to continue this conversation on the move. Of coarse, feel free to stay, your world and all, but personally I'm outer here."

"How will you know where you are going?" Tan Jala asked.

"Instinct, logical thinking and an unearthly amount of luck, good thing I'm on Pandora." He joked before beginning to trace his way back to the clearing.

"_**I think we should accompany him; if he expects to make it back to his people on luck he will need help."**_ Tan Jala said.

"_**True, and if nothing else he will prove interesting until Palulukan eats him."**_

They both chuckled and left to catch up with the human.

**

* * *

A/N: ** Not much to say, no one's saying anything to me. Don't think I'll give up yet though, the statistics for the number of people reading is still quite high. You should also note (if I haven't already mentioned this) that at this stage the Na'vi are a little friendlier since we (humans) haven't shot up a school house full of their kids or blown up any of their villages yet.


End file.
